By Ian S Palmer
Regular WBA Middleweight Champion Ryota Murata of Japan will be meeting European Champion Emanuele Felice Blandamura of Italy in an optional title defence in Yokohama, Japan this Sunday, April 15th. The 12-round bout can be seen live early in the morning at 7 or 8 am ET in the USA on ESPN 2. Murata won back his title from Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam last October by stopping him after the seventh round. N’Jikam had taken the vacant title in a bout against Murata just five months earlier by a controversial split decision. Blandamura was last in the ring back in June when he beat Alessandro Goddi via a 12-round unanimous decision.
The 32-year-old Murata is an upper-class boxer as he won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 2012 Olympics in London, England. He turned pro the next year and has boxed 84 rounds since then and enters the ring with a record of 13-1 with 10 Kos. Murata stands six-feet tall with a 74-inch reach. Other than meeting N’Dam, twice, he hasn’t exactly fought the cream of the crop in the middleweight division either, but he’s had just 14 pro fights. He’s beaten Akio Shibata, Carlos Nascimento, Jessie Nicklow, Gunnar Jackson and Bruno Sandoval.
Murata possesses fine boxing skills and appears to have a solid chin. He also has pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 71 per cent. Murata possesses an aggressive style and likes to dig his heavy punched into his opponents’ body as much as the head. He has a crowd-pleasing way of boxing and may want to entertain the fans over in North America in the near future. It’s hard to spot an obvious weakness in Murata, but he may want to sharpen up his defensive skills if possible.
Blandamura is now 38 years old and will enter the ring with an impressive record of 27-2, but he has just 5 Kos to his name. His chin is also somewhat questionable as he’s been stopped in both of his losses. These came at the hands of Michael Soro in the eighth-round in June of 2015 for the vacant European Middleweight Title and two fights earlier to Billy Joe Saunders in the eighth-round round in his an earlier attempt at the vacant European Title. He’s also won the WBC International Silver and WBC Mediterranean Middleweight Titles during his career.
The Italian turned pro back in 2007 after winning 33 of his 44 amateur bouts and has fought 196 rounds since then. He stands 5-feet-10-inches tall with an unlisted reach so is two inches shorter than the champion. Blandamura has fallen just short when stepping up in class and he’ll be doing so again when meeting Murata. He certainly lacks in the power-punching department as his current knockout ratio sits at just 17 per cent. Other than Saunders, there’s not really anyone recognizable on his list of opponents and many of them had losing records.
Prediction…
Murata is the more solid boxer here which includes power and his chin. As long as he doesn’t get careless in there he should have no problem retaining his title and could do it by stoppage.
