## ISHIHARA ACQUIRES OPBF 115-POUND BELT

July 7, 2002

NAGOYA, JAPAN-Hard-hitting Japanese southpaw Hideyasu Ishihara (10-2-1, 8 KOs), 115, acquired the vacant OPBF 115-pound belt as he survived a second round visit to the deck and collected points by outjabbing and outlegging Filipino champ Joel Avila (25-12-3, 13 KOs), 114.25, to be awarded a technical split decision midway in the 7th round in Nagoya, Japan.

Ishihara, formerly amateur KO artist, surprisingly knelt down with Avilafs sudden and short uppercut in the second, which forced him to change his strategy into outboxing the slower Filipino.

Scored: referee David Chung (Korea) and Takaomi Ito (Japan) both 67-66 for Ishihara, and Virgilio Garcia (Philippines) 67-64 for Avila.

### Undercard:

OPBF #5 super-bantam Masakazu Sugawara (14-2-4, 7 KOs), 123.25, dropped Hideki Takayama (14-6-4, 4 KOs), 123, with sharp combos in the third, but was held to a technical draw due to the latterfs bad gash at 2:43 of the 4th canto.

Former OPBF challenger Yosuke Otsuka (16-1, 13 KOs), 146.75, decked Ryuichi Kuwana (6-14-5, 3 KOs), 144.5, three times and automatically stopped him at 3:00 of the third.

Japanese #3 super-fly Shin Ogata (12-0-1, 5 KOs), 119, had a tough time coping with a much taller Korean by 5 inches named Hoonsuk Park (4-1-2, 2 KOs), 121.25, but controlled the second half to earn a unanimous nod over 10.

Promoter: Matsuda Promotions.

Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Ishihara vs. Avila OPBF eliminator and the Ogata vs. Park bout).

(7-7-02)

Back to Oriental Boxing

Go to Top