This is an excellent fight between two young Japanese Super Lightweights. Both are big punchers and no matter the outcome of this bout will likely have good careers. Hiraoka is a bit more seasoned and technically a little better in my opinion but does give up the raw power advantage. Jin Sasaki doesn’t have much patience and forces his way to knockout victories which led to him being dropped in his last fight. He was able to then stop his opponent but he was on the verge of getting stopped himself, partly due to his reckless style.
Going into this bout I favoured Sasaki to win by knockout because I think in a battle of explosive punchers it’s likely his power would lead him to victory but he badly missed weight for this fight. This in my eyes brings into question how drained he might be from trying to make weight or simply how hard hes actually trained for this fight. I now think Hiraoka will be able to survive an early onslaught before stopping the tiring Sasaki in the latter rounds. The winner of this fight will pick up both the Japanese and WBO Asia Pacific Super lightweight titles.
Boxing Fulcrum 