Asian Boxing Awards - 2021 Prospect of the Year
When we talk about about Prospect of the year we really need to define what we consider a "Prospect". For us a prospect is a fighter who isn't ranked, when they are ranked they become a contender, it's also someone who lacks in terms of achievement but have shown a lot of promise and potential. To advance that to "Prospect of the Year", we are also then looking at a fighter who has made huge strides through the last 12 months, and achieved something of note, whilst creating a buzz for themself.
Sadly fighters like Ryosuke Nishida and Yudai Shigeoka have both moved from prospect into contendership this year, with both fighters taking huge strides forward in their two bouts this year. For Nishida his win over Daigo Higa in April was absolutely huge, and earned him the WBO Asia Pacific Bantamweight title. As for Shigeoka he ended up winning both the Japanese Youth Light Flyweight title and the WBO Asia Pacific Minimumweight title.
With that in mind we had to look else where, and thankfully we didn't have to look for long before we came across 23 year old Flyweight-come-Super Flyweight Jukiya Iimura, who had an amazing first year in the professional ranks. He made his, much anticipated, debut in January and impressed immediately with an opening round win over Daisuke Yamada. He stole the show on his debut and added a win over former amateur standout Tomoki Kawasaki in June. It was, however, how he ended the year that earned him this award, as he moved up in weight and out boxed former Japanese Super Flyweight champion Takayuki Okumoto over 8 rounds to record the biggest win, by far, of his short career.
In just 12 months Iimura has moved from amateur standout to someone who is set to move into the Japanese rankings when they are next updated. To say this was a massive year for Iimura is an understatement, and fingers crossed he delivers further on his potential in 2022. If he continues at this rate he could well be in the mix for regional honours in his first two or three years as a professional, much like Shigeoka and Nishida were.
Sadly fighters like Ryosuke Nishida and Yudai Shigeoka have both moved from prospect into contendership this year, with both fighters taking huge strides forward in their two bouts this year. For Nishida his win over Daigo Higa in April was absolutely huge, and earned him the WBO Asia Pacific Bantamweight title. As for Shigeoka he ended up winning both the Japanese Youth Light Flyweight title and the WBO Asia Pacific Minimumweight title.
With that in mind we had to look else where, and thankfully we didn't have to look for long before we came across 23 year old Flyweight-come-Super Flyweight Jukiya Iimura, who had an amazing first year in the professional ranks. He made his, much anticipated, debut in January and impressed immediately with an opening round win over Daisuke Yamada. He stole the show on his debut and added a win over former amateur standout Tomoki Kawasaki in June. It was, however, how he ended the year that earned him this award, as he moved up in weight and out boxed former Japanese Super Flyweight champion Takayuki Okumoto over 8 rounds to record the biggest win, by far, of his short career.
In just 12 months Iimura has moved from amateur standout to someone who is set to move into the Japanese rankings when they are next updated. To say this was a massive year for Iimura is an understatement, and fingers crossed he delivers further on his potential in 2022. If he continues at this rate he could well be in the mix for regional honours in his first two or three years as a professional, much like Shigeoka and Nishida were.