March 12, 2000
TOKYO, JAPAN-Lanky Venezuelan GILBERTO SERRANO, 134 1/2, came off the
canvas twice in the opening session, and had the right eye of Japan's
HIROYUKI SAKAMOTO(right photo), 134 1/2, so completely closed as to cause a stoppage
at 2:27 of the 5th round at Ryogoku Sumo Arena.
It's Serrano's first defense since he captured the title via an 11th round TKO of Italian Stefano Zoff in Las Vegas on November 14 last.
Serrano, 29, experienced a crisis when he hit the deck on a couple of occasions in the first session. Sakamoto's opening blows, a left-right combination, sent the champ on the seat of his trunks. The Japanese bull-fighter had him on the deck again with a vicious left hook. As the three knockdown rule was applied to this bout, people expected that Sakamoto's victory and coronation was a matter of time. But the champ barely lasted the nightmare of the opening canto. Sakamoto sustained a gash under the left eyebrow.
But Serrano, 29, regained his coolness and rhythm in the second round, when he caught the onrushing Japanese, also 29, with a sickle-like left uppercut and had his right optic badly swollen. The Venezuelan outjabbed him and dominated the second round.
Serrano turned to the lefty stance and countered the game but monotonous Japanese to take another point in the third.
Though Sakamoto seemed to have difficulty watching the champ with his almost closed eye, he kept boring in to occasionally pin him to the ropes with a flurry of punches.
In the fatal 5th, referee Mitch Halpern, from Las Vegas, had Sakamoto's right optic examined by the ring physician and allowed him to go on. But Halpern saw him unfit to see his opponent well, so made the doctor check his eye again. Then he waived his arms and declared a TKO win for Serrano.
After the 4th session, all the scoresheets were identical, 38-36 for Sakamoto, by Duane Ford (US), Rodolfo Maldonado (Panama) and Erkki Meronen (Finland).
The stoppage raised Serrano's mark to 19-4-2, 16 KOs. Sakamoto, 35-4, 25 KOs, failed to win the world 135-pound throne three times, following his losses to Steve Johnston in 1997 and to Cesar Bazan in 1998.
UNDERCARD:Lefty bantam prospect TOSHIAKI NISHIOKA(right photo), 120, ranked #6 by the WBA and the WBC, dropped Filipino RODEL LLANITA, 120, twice and finished him at 2:51 in the second session. Nishioka is 20-2-1, 12 KOs. Llanita is 8-3-2, 6 KOs.
TOSHIKAGE KIMURA(left photo), 126, acquired the vacant Japanese national feather title, as he maintained the pressure on lefty ATSUSHI HAGIWARA, 125 1/2, and opened a nasty cut on the eyebrow, which made the referee declare a halt at 0:35 of the 7th round.
Kimura, managed by Akihiko Honda, raised his ledger to 20-2-4, 9 KOs.
Hagiwara, Japan's top contender who previously drew with Kimura last
April, fell to 22-5-1, 11 KOs.
Promoter: Akihiko Honda's Teiken Promotions.
WBA supervisor: Aurelio Fiengo (Panama).
(3-12-00)