The demise of a multiple time world champion appears to have been greatly exaggerated!

Boxing fans are known to jump off band wagons as quickly as they will jump on one.  So it was no surprise after Pelenchin lost a pair of controversial split decisions that many of them were willing to write him off as either exposed or too old to compete at the highest level.  It seems that now the wagon is once again filling up with believers.

On New Years Eve in front of, for the third consecutive time, a hostile crowd, Pelenchin cruised to a clear cut victory over a game, but out-classed Satoshi Hosono.  As the final bell rang, there was no doubt that Pelenchin had claimed victory despite having fought in his opponents homeland.  The judges scores were indicative of the domination as two of them gave Hosono just one round.  It may have not been the most pleasing fight to the eye, but it served as a strong reminder to other fighters in the division that no matter how much they may have hoped Pelenchin would have just gone away after back to back setbacks against Jason Litzau and Jonathan Barros, that he is still a force to be dealt with.

Japan was a wonderful experience, but it had it highs and lows. The high of course was coming back home with the title. A brilliant performance by Celestino Cabalerro as he defened his title on foreign soil, winning eleven out of twelve rounds enroute to a unanimous decision over over Japan's own Satoshi Hosono. The guy was a very game fighter who had no quit in him, but was totally outclassed by Cabalerro, and always appeared to be two steps behind Cabalerro.

So many fun and entertaining things happened to me on this trip so I will share as much as I can remember in random order. I think it still will make for fun reading experience. The first thing that stood out to me was I amazed at the level of respect that the Japanese culture shows not only to one another but to everyone. After awhile I found myself bowing to everyone just as they bowed to me and it felt right.

One of the lows: Boxing accident between me and Celestino Cabalerro.  I was working on a drill I call the "Doom Session" anyone that knows me or trains with me knows what I'm talking about. It's when I try my best to hit you while I'm giving you mittwork. I'm trying my best to actually simulate an actual fight with punches coming back at you while your punching as well. This time it went wrong for me. As Celestino was on the ropes I tried to hit him with an overhand right. Unfortunately, I fell in while throwing the punch and Celestino moved forward. We clashed heads pretty hard. My concern wasn't my cut, even though it was pretty bad. It was Celestino being cut. Lucky for us he didn't have one. I looked at him as my eye was bleeding and the only thing he said was "I have a hard head don't I," and he just laughed at me.

I missed Christmas: My phone never switched over to Japan time which was like a 16 hour time dfference.  So, not taking that into consideration I was stuck on Vegas time. I actually spent Christmas with my good friend Seiji.  He took me out to a very nice restaurant. He used to live in Vegas, but right now lives in Japan. I'm sure if you're reading this, you're saying to yourself how did I miss Christmas, but continue to follow me.