By Scott Gilfoid: Tonight, WBA super flyweight champion Kal Yafai (21-0, 14 KOs) will be inside the ring defending his title against Japan’s Suguru Muranaka (25-2-1, 8 KOs) at the Barclaycard Arna in Birmingham, UK. This is the 27-year-old Yafai’s first defense of his WBA strap, which he won last December in being Luis Conception. That wasn’t much of a fight due to the size differences between the two fighters.
It might have been a good fight if Conception was taller and heavier, but he was too small. Yafai is huge for the super flyweight division right now. Personally, I think Yafai should be fighting at bantamweight of better yet super bantamweight. I’d like to see Yafai face Guillermo Rigondeaux, Rey Vargas, Jessie Magdaleno or have Scott Quigg drop back down from featherweight to face him. But as far as tonight’s fight, the 31-year-old Muranaka is much small and weak to be any threat to beating Yafai.
I’m still trying to figure out why Yafai and his management selected Muranaka to fight. Out of all the contenders and champions in the super flyweight division, why did Yafai and his people select Muranaka? If the idea is to turn Yafai into a star, don’t you want to put him in with the best instead of a fringe contender? I’m just saying. The idea is to have Yafai face the best every time or at least it should be. Is there a confidence issue with Yafai? If I was the management for Yafai, I would be putting him in with the best fighters every single time out unless I didn’t believe in him. In that case, I would pick out fringe contenders like Muranaka and hope that he can at least beat that guy.
Muranaka is ranked at #10 by the World Boxing Association. The magical question is why did Yafai’s promoter match him against such a low ranked fighter and why are they making a big deal about this fight? As far as I can, it’s a mismatch for Yafai. It’s a showcase fight to make Yafai look good. A much better opponent for Yafai would be someone like Roman Gonzalez, Carlos Cuadras, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Naoya Inoue or Jerwin Acajas.
Yafai’s promoters at Matchroom Sport should be able to get one of those guys to fight him. I can understand how some of them might not be available to fight Yafai, but ALL OF THEM? If Kafai’s promoter threw some money at one of those guys, I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t agree to fight him. Is there no interest in Kafai’s management’s part in fighting the like of Cuadras, Inoue, Gonzalez, Acajas or Rungvisai? I think Yafai would lose to all of them. There would be no showcasing Yafai’s boxing skills if he had to fight one of those guys, I hate to say it, but I think Yafai would be knocked out by all of them. However, Kafai can definitely beat Muranaka in tonight’s fight, so he’ll likely fine.
Muranaka hasn’t been beaten in ages. His last loss was in 2006. That’s pretty impressive until you look at the guys that Muranaka has been fighting during the last 11 years. There’s no quality among the 19 guys he’s fought in my opinion. As American novelist Gertrude Stein once said, ‘There’s no there there.’ Stein was referring to Oakland, California. But in this case, you can say the same about Muranaka’s opposition he’s fought in the last 11 years.
Having seen some clips of Muranaka’s past fights, he seems to be lacking in punching power to the extreme. He’s a light hitter who uses his volume punching, boxing skills and movement to win his fights. Yafai won’t have too many problems with the power of Muranaka, because he just does not have any real power to worry him.
Yafai wants to fight the recently beaten Roman Gonzalez. That’s not going to happen anytime soon because Gonzalez still has unfinished business with Rungvisai after losing to him. Why isn’t Yafai calling out Rungvisai? That fight makes more sense than calling out Roman Gonzalez. I guess Yafai wants Gonzalez because he’s more recognizable worldwide. It’s not going to happen though because Gonzalez wants a rematch with Rungvisai. Instead of calling out Gonzalez, Yafai should be calling out the fighters with world titles like Rungvisai, Acajas, or Inoue.
If Yafai wants to call out a contender, then he should be calling out Sho Ishida or Cuadras. At least those two guys won their last fights. After 2 fights at super flyweight, I don’t think Roman Gonzalez is cut out for this division. He’s too small, and his power didn’t carry up with him from the flyweight division. Gonzalez has already moved up 3 divisions since he turned pro.
If Yafai did the same thing, he would be campaigning as a featherweight right now against the likes of Gary Russell Jr., Oscar Valez, Abner Mares, Joseph Diaz Jr., Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz. Now those would be interesting fights for Yafai, would they not? Unfortunately, I don’t see Yafai taking the same kind of risks that Roman Gonzalez has taken in moving up 3 entire divisions in looking for bigger and better fights.
Muranaka will give it his best shot tonight against Yafai, but I see him losing based on his lack of punching power and Yafai’s huge size advantage. When the two of them stood next to each last Friday for a face off after the weigh-in, Yafai looked much bigger than him. We’ll have to see tonight if Yafai’s size advantage carries over into the ring when he’s fully rehydrated.
”For me, he did not lose a round when he won a world title, he boxed beautifully, and with the home crowd behind him I think he will put on a great performance,” said Matthew Macklin about Yafai to skysports.com.
Yeah, of course, Yafai dominated Conception in their fight last December. Conception looked like he needed to stand on top of a box to fight Yafai, because he was so much smaller than him. Conception never stood a chance for an instant.
Prediction
I see Yafai battering Muranaka around the ring like a football, hitting him a will until he’s knocked out in the 7th or 8th round. It’s too bad Muranaka isn’t a puncher, because this would be a good fight if he had some power to slow Yafai down and keep him honest.
Also on tonight’s Yafai vs. Muranaka card, welterweight Sam Eggington will be in action facing Ceferino Rodriguez for his EBU 147 pound strap. That might be the best fight of fight of the night by far.