OSAKA, JAPAN-A triple world title bout took place in Osaka and Yokohama, Japan, with all defending champs keeping their belts.
January 03, 2004
OSAKA, JAPAN-A triple world title bout took place in Osaka and Yokohama, Japan, with all defending champs keeping their belts.
WBC 115-pound champ Masamori Tokuyma (30-2-1, 8 KOs)(right photo), 115, retained his title as he kept jabbing all night and occasionally scored effective overhand rights to the top contender Dimitri Kirilov (23-2, 7 KOs), 114.5, to win a unanimous decision over twelve heats on Saturday night at Osaka Central Gymnasium in Osaka, Japan.
Scores: Oren Shellenberger (US) 117-111, Brad Vocale (Australia) 117-112, and Porfirio Gomez Rueda (Mexico) 116-1112, all for the taller jabber Tokuyama. Referee was Victor Drakulich (US).
Tokuyama, making his eighth defense, made good use of his left jab and kept his distance, scoring with solid right crosses to the face of the cautious challenger. The champ maintained his initiative to steadily pile up points. Tokuyama almost toppled the shorter Russian with a vicious right counter, but Kirilov withstood the champfs attack in the eleventh. The Russian amazingly showed his last surge, shaking up the champ with his desperate combinations to win the final session.
WBA super-fly champ Alexander Munoz (25-0, 24 KOs), 114.75, Venezuela, also kept his belt as he made a very shaky start, but dropped taller Japanese southpaw Eiji Kojima (9-2, 2 KOs), 115, three times in the fifth, ninth and tenth to score a fine TKO win at 3:03 of the tenth round.
Munoz looked much slower than previously, being outjabbed by the lefty Japanese in the first four rounds. Munoz, however, found his range to floor his rival with a vicious combo in the fifth to have the tide turn obviously. The Venezuelan caught him to send him to the deck again in the ninth. As Munoz decked Kojima with a merciless combination, referee Roberto Ramirez, Puerto Rico, made a well-received stoppage to save the loser from further punishment.
Scores after the ninth: Hector Hernandez (Mexico) 89-81, Ruben Garcia (US) 89-80 and Wansoo Yuh (Korea) 87-82, all in favor of the unbeaten hard-puncher.
The doubleheader was promoted by Kanazawa Promotions.
Lefty Thailander Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Kratindaeng-Gym (50-2, 27 KOs), 112, mixed up with hard-punching Japanese Trash Masaki Nakanuma (23-5, 10 KOs), 112, winning a unanimous decision also on Saturday night at Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan.
Scores: Malcolm Bulner (Australia) 116-112, Jaebong Kim (Korea) 116-113 and Chuck Williams (US) 115-113, all for the more skillful champ.
Pongsaklek, making his ninth defense, kept swapping punches with the sporadic big puncher Nakanuma, and was in command in most of the rounds. Nakanuma fought well, but the champ was superior in precision while punching toe-to-toe in the center of the ring.
It was staged by Kokusai Promotions.
(1-3-04)