July 30, 2002
OSAKA, JAPAN-The official weigh-in was over. The WBA super-fly champ Alexander Munoz of Venezuela, 22-0, 22 KOs, tipped the beam at 114.75, while Japanese southpaw Eiji Kojima, 3 years his senior at 25, scaled in at the 115-pound class limit.
Munoz is favored to defend his belt against the less experienced ex-OPBF champ Kojima, just 6-0, 1 KO, who is a much better puncher than his credentials indicate.
Kojima, whose amateur mark was 32-9, 14 KOs, acquired the vacant 115-pound title of the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) in his 5th pro bout as he dropped Korean champ Keunshik Lee twice in the opening canto and was awarded a technical decision in the 7th last December. Kojima, a tall and stylish lefty, kept his regional belt by flooring ex-world challenger Hayato Asai time and again en route to a lopsided decision this April. Despite his low KO ratio, he dropped his opponent in an early round in almost every bout.
Munoz, whose amateur mark was 163-9, kept collecting his KO victims since he entered the paid ranks in 1998, and finally captured the WBA belt by dismantling Japan’s Celes Kobayashi in 8 onesided rounds last March. The tremendously hard-punching Venezuelan destroyed the reputation of Kobayashi’s iron chin as he decked the Japanese time and again in Tokyo.
Each predicts an early knockout victory, so we may see a crowd-pleasing thriller.
(7-30-02)