December 3, 2003
NAGOYA, JAPAN-WBA 130-pound champ Yodsanan 3K Battery (40-2-1, 33 KOs), Thailand, will defend his belt against Japanese prospect Ryuhei Sugita (25-1-2, 21 KOs) at Gifu Memorial Center, Gifu City, Japan, on February 8. It was announced by ex-WBC super-bantam champ Kiyoshi Hatanakafs Hatanaka Promotions in Nagoya.
Yodsanan, a sturdy southpaw hard-puncher, acquired the vacant WBA title by outhustling Lakva Shim, ex-champ from Mongolia, in Thailand in April of the previous year. He kept it once as he dispatched Lamont Pearson with his body bombardments in nine rounds last December. Prior to his WBA coronation Yodsanan had kept his regional PABA belt on 19 occasions.
Sugita, managed and promoted by the ex-champ Hatanaka, is a non-stop puncher whose persistent body attack is his specialty. He seized the vacant Japanese 130-pound belt by finishing Go Kaneuchi in eight rounds in 1998, but failed to win the OPBF title by a hairline split decision to Filipino lefty Tiger Ari in February 2001. It was his sole setback. Sugita fought to a fifth-round technical draw with Mexican Javier Jauregui (who lately acquired the vacant IBF title by demolishing Levander Johnson in Los Angeles this November) in Nagoya in February of the last year.
Yodsanan, 29, is a harder puncher, but Sugita, 27, is more durable with his abundant stamina. It will be a competitive fight of the body punchers.
(12-03-03)