March 12, 2001
TOKYO, JAPAN-Slick-punching Kinji Amano, 129, amazingly captured the Japanese national super-feather title as he outpunched WBC #10 ranked defending champ Koji Arisawa, 130, with precision and withstood his furious retaliations in the last two rounds, winning a close but unanimous decision in gory 10 rounds at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo.
The light-punching underdog Amano took the initiative with sharp jabs and accurate combinations from the start and dominated four rounds in the first half. The second half was really a pier six brawl with Amano peppering him from all angles and Arisawa retaliating with sporadic but much heavier shots.
The last session saw the champ, making his 7th defense, almost catch him to produce a come-from-behind knockout, but Amano displayed his durability and determination to save his accumulation on points in earlier rounds. They desperately hit each other toe-to-toe, bleeding with the face in crimson in the final 3 minutes. It was really Japanese Fight of the Month.
Scored: Uchida 96-95, Fukuchi 97-94 and Shimakawa 97-95, all for Amano, 18-5-3, 9 KOs. The very popular star Arisawa suffered his second setback following his KO defeat by the current WBA light champ Takanori Hatakeyama years ago, and dropped to 25-2-1, 19 KOs.
Arisawa was very much willing to have a crack at the WBA throne against Joel Casamayor, who decided to face Brazilian KO artist Acelino Freitas on July 14. Kojifs dream thus came to naught.
Promoter: Soka Arisawa Promotions.
(3-12-01)