January 28, 2003
TOKYO, JAPAN-Japanese lightweight champ Takehiro Shimada, 135, impressively kept his national belt as he opened bad gashes over the right eyebrow of formerly world-rated Junichi Ono, 135, battered him with a fusillade of punches and halted him at 0:52 of the 8th round in Tokyo.
Ono, ex-national 140-pound champ who moved down to the 135-pound division, made a good start in the first, but Shimada, a Randy Turpin stylist, took the initiative from the second round on as he maintained the pressure with stinging lefts and averted his opponentfs quick combos with his tight guard. Ono, the prefight favorite, bled so profusely that it deteriorated his vision to absorb the champfs punishment all the way. The referee made a well-timed intervention to save the loser from further damage. The champ raised his mark to 12-3-1, 7 KOs, and Ono dipped to 23-5-2, 9 KOs.
WBC #11 ranked OPBF super-middle champ Yoshinori Nishizawa (22-13-5, 11 KOs), 169.75, swept all rounds with his persistent body attacks and took a lopsided decision (100-90, 99-93 and 100-91) over Indonesian top ranked middle Muhordi (15-10-3, 6 KOs), 168.25, over a non-title 10. The champ sang a birthday song for his 5-year-old daughter Yuka afterward in the ring along with his adherents, holding her in his arms.
Unbeaten Japanese #5 feather Motokazu Abe (10-0-1, 8 KOs), 126, landed a solid right to the lantern jaw of Thai #2 feather Suphchai Poh Surasak (9-3, 2 KOs), 126, and finished him at 2:20 of the third round.
Promoter: Yonekura Promotions.
(1-28-03)