KIKUJI OKUDA: Japan’s Freddie Roach help Santillan regain OPBF crown
By Alex P. Vidal
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 27 Jul 2007
Now it can be told.
Aside from Cebuano trainer Crisologo “Brix” Flores, another crack boxing trainer who heavily assisted Rev “Gentle Giant” Santillan during his preparation for the 12-round OPBF fisticuffs with champion Taisei Marumoto in Osaka, Japan last July 14, was Kikuji Okuda, owner of Shakujii Sports Boxing Gym in Nerima-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Okuda, 65, known in Tokyo as “the Freddie Roach of Japan,” helped put additional panache in Santillan’s muscles and endurance and accompanied the 30-year-old lefty in his daily roadwork in Tokyo two months before the OPBF welterweight showdown at the Archaic Hall in Amagasaki, Hyogo.
“We did a lot of roadwork together while Brix supervised the punch mitts,” Okuda slowly narrated in English. “I noticed that Santillan became stronger three weeks before the fight.”
Okuda, who counted world champion Eagle Kiowa as among his wards, said he brought Santillan to the First Sports Boxing Gym owned by Flash Elorde’s friend, Yukio Katsumata for sparring sessions four weeks before flying to Osaka where they stayed a week before the fight.
“There, Santillan suffered a nasty cut in the left eyebrow,” he said shaking his head. Due to the injury, manager Rex “Wakee” Salud said he wanted to postpone the fight for fear that Santillan might suffer cuts during his fight with Marumoto.
Marumoto, trained by Santillan’s former teammate in Iloilo amateur boxing, Joven Jorda, indeed nearly ruined Santillan’s bid as he reopened the wound in the third round with dizzying peek-a-boo shots.
Santillan, way behind in all the three judges’ scorecards, rallied in the fifth canto and wrecked Marumoto with a smashing left to the jaw to snatch the OPBF 147-pound tiara.
Okuda said although Santillan was losing on points, “he was not yet finished.”
“I knew that he would stop Marumoto. When he rocked him with uppercuts in the fourth round, I said to myself this fight will not last the distance,” said Okuda whose teenage son by his Filipina wife is studying at De La Salle University in Manila.
Okuda described Santillan as “easy to get along with and is very courteous.”
During the initial stage of Santillan’s preparations that romped off last May 24, the Iloilo-raised boxer and Flores stayed at Okuda’s quarters which is few blocks away from the fabled Shakujii Sports Boxing Club.
Flores, for his part, described Okuda as soft-spoken and “boota gid gyud (very kind person).”
Above photo, from left: Kikuji Okuda, Australian referee Brad Vocale, Alex Vidal.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Alex P. Vidal.
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