Inoue, Nery, and the Six Decade Road to the Dome: Part II

Concluding the history of championship fights between Mexico and Japan ahead of the biggest fight ever between the nations

In part one, ahead of the Tokyo Dome showdown between undisputed junior featherweight  champion Naoya Inoue and Luis Nery, The Corner Stool provided readers the initial history of the championship boxing rivalry between Mexico and Japan dating to the first title bout between the nations in 1966. A correction was added to part one to correct a math/tracking error, amending the identified record in the series to 78-66-3 with 1 No Contest in favor of Mexico. Part two picks up with bouts contested in the twenty-first century taking us right to the opening bell on Monday.

The 00s

One can make a case that the most interesting story of the decade in the Mexico/Japan rivalry came in the breakthrough of Toshiaki Nishioka. From 2000-04, Nishioka received four opportunities to dethrone outstanding WBC bantamweight titlist Veeraphol Sahaprom. Nishioka lost the first and last bouts in the series, and settled for draws in the other two bouts. 

It looked like he would have to settle for the most bitter of bridesmaid pills in his pursuit of gold. Then, in 2008, he was able to win an interim WBC belt at junior featherweight. Elevated to primary titlist, he defended against Genaro Garcia before getting the biggest win of his career to then. 

Jhonny Gonzalez had won six in a row since a stoppage loss to Gerry Penalosa at bantamweight, five of those wins by knockout. Nishioka had won ten straight, six by stoppage. Their meeting would be short, and explosive. As reported in the August 2009 issue of Boxing Digest, “Southpaw Toshiaki Nishioka…arose from the canvas to retain his WBC 122 lb. title, blasting out Jhonny Gonzalez…at 1:20 of round three. With 20 seconds remaining in the opener, a right hand dropped Nishioka but Gonzalez was too patient in the following round, seemingly letting the champion off the hook. In the third, a surprise left hand counter shot floored Gonzalez, who struggled to get to his feet unsuccessfully.”

Nishioka would ultimately go on to defend the title seven times, with four successful defenses against Mexican opponents (three in the decade), marking him as one of Japan’s most achieved fighters in this rivalry.