April 7, 2001
TOKYO, JAPAN-Elongated WBA #9 ranked Hiroyuki Maeda, 140, easily kept his Japanese national super-flight belt as he dropped top ranked Shigeyuki Ohno, 139 1/4, with a looping left hook and downed him again en route to a quick demolition at 2:35 of the opening session at the Korakuen Hall.
Maeda, making his third defense, swarmed over his nervous opponent from Osaka with his opening attack, dropping him twice before the stoppage. Ohno, who had entered the Japanese top ten thanks to his upset KO win over Kiyoshi Adachi in 1999, could show nothing to cope with the more experienced champ.
Maeda, 23-6-2, 14 KOs, expressed his intention to win his third national title in the 147-pound division in the nearest future. Ohno dipped to 10-7-1, 9 KOs.
Bloodied Yoshikane Nakajima, 122, JBC #8 bantam, was awarded a split technical decision over Masaki Hiramaru, 122, #7 bantie, at 2:25 of the 9th canto.
Scored: 78-77 and 78-75 for Nakajima (8-5-3), and 77-76 for Hiramaru (16-5-3, 12 KOs).
Unbeaten Hidenori Kobayashi, 128, showed a sleep-tempting lackluster performance, but earned a close but unanimous nod over Shorin Nagata, 128, over 8.
The JBC #9 feather Kobayashi, 8-0-1, 3 KOs, could not hurt the more experienced opponent due to his busy but powder-puff punching. The loser fell to 13-9, 6 KOs.
Ex-national high school champ Takashi Ijichi, 130, surprisingly hit the deck twice in the third, and dropped a unanimous decision to Daiju Kawase, 129 1/2, over 10. Ijichi dropped to 2-1. The upset victor was 4-3-1, 3 KOs.
Promoter: Kadoebi Jewel Promotions.
(4-07-01)