November 03, 2000
November 03, 2000
FUKUOKA, JAPAN-Elongated southpaw Takashi Koshimoto(right photo), 127 1/4, was rendered a technical decision over Filipino champ Baby Lorona Jr., 127 1/4, due to the winner’s cut in the 10th and final round.
It was an encounter of lefties. They put on a very fast and scientific fight, though the physically superior Koshimoto piled up more points than the flat-footed Filipino.
Scored: double 88-84 and 87-85, all for Koshimoto, 26-1-2, 14 KOs.
Koshimoto, the promoter’s son like Sean O’Grady, had an ambitious crack at the WBA feather title against Freddie Norwood only to be finished in the 9th despite putting on a good fight with his full use of footwork in Fukuoka last January. The 5’9” southpaw decked a couple of comebacking fights to his credit. Koshimoto is guaranteed to fight the winner of the upcoming OPBF feather title bout between Australian Tony Wehbee and Panther Yanagida on December 23-as the mandatory challenger authorized by the OPBF-next March.
Kenta Okada(left photo), a local prospect, 129 3/4, won a shutout decision over Filipino veteran Tony Bernales, 130, over 10.
This fight, however, had cast a serious problem to the Japanese boxing fraternity. Originally a Filipino boxer named Jun Paiman was booked against Okada, but the GAB (Games and Amusements Board, the Philippine commission) refused to allow him to fight abroad despite Paiman having been already granted a Japanese visa, saying that a Filipino boxer must fight an 8-round bout more than three times prior to his campaign abroad. Paiman had fought an 8-round bout only twice, so the GAB wouldn’t permit his fight in Japan. The GAB’s refusal was confirmed just 10 days before the card. Tony Bernales, a Filipino veteran, was booked as a late substitute for Paiman, but Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) said that it would not issue a visa-taking letter of guarantee-due to the order of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affair-without confirming the deletion of Paiman’s visa since there had been great many illegal entries of Filipino people into Japan. Finally the matchmaker of this card, yours truly, took time and obtained the mentioned letter of guarantee for Bernales from the JBC so that the substitute barely could arrive here in time under the condition that Jun Paiman would voluntarily go and delete his once-granted Japanese visa at the Japanese embassy in Manila. Regrettably it has become a social problem that some Filipino boxing people have entered Japan under the name of boxing activity to stay and work illegally without returning to their country after the fights or by utilizing their visas unjustifiably. The governmental regulation against Filipino boxers or boxing people (companions, e.g. managers or trainers) will become stricter due to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently applying political pressure to the JBC. This matchmaker just wish Jun Paiman not to use his once-granted visa on a bad purpose but to have it deleted at the embassy due to his fight having been cancelled.
Promoter: Mimatsu Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi.
(11-03-00)