Fight fans witnessed the making of a little piece of boxing history earlier today in Tokyo, Japan. Fighting on the same bill, the Shigeoka brothers, Ginjiro and Yudai, both became the holder of a world strawweight title. With their respective wins – Ginjiro stopping Daniel Valladares in the fifth round to take the IBF title, Yudai winning a wide 12 round unanimous decision over Panya Pradrabsi (AKA Petchmanee CP Freshmart) to take the WBC belt – the brothers from Kumamoto in Japan became the first boxing siblings to win major world titles at the same weight on the same card.
Photo: SUMIO YAMADA
Ginjiro, the younger of the two brothers, looked sensational in halting Mexico’s Valladares, the fifth round KO seeing him improve to 10-0(8), with Valladares dropping to 27-4-1(15). These two had met in an earlier fight, back in January, with the fight ending up a no contest. After that fight, Ginjiro stopped Rene Mark Cuarto to win the interim IBF belt. Now the 23 year old holds the full title at 105 pounds.
Later on the card, 26 year old Yudai boxed brilliantly in scoring a near shut-out over Thailand’s Pradabsri, winning via lopsided scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 117-111. Now 8-0(5), Yudai has made even faster progress than his brother, in terms of number of fights fought. Pradabsri, who has never been stopped, falls to 40-2(24).
These two were to have fought in April, but Pradabsri fell ill and had to postpone. This left Shigeoka to move on and fight Wilfredo Mendez, who he stopped in the seventh round to become interim WBC champ. Now, like his brother, Yudai holds the real thing.
Both brothers are now the top dogs at 105 and it will be interesting to see how long each man can reign for. Both southpaws are major talents, with Ginjiro having gone pro in September of 2018, and with Yudai having his pro debut in October of 2021. To repeat, both men have made incredible progress, with the two warriors each having won a world title inside a double-digit number of fights.
