April 17, 2004
TOKYO, JAPAN-A Japanese welter unification title bout took place on Saturday night in Tokyo, Japan, where interim champ Hiroyuki Maeda (28-7-2, 17 KOs), 147, acquired his third legitimate national belt in as many classes as he pounded out a lopsided decision (99-92, 99-91 and 98-93) over full champ Shuichi Kobayashi (13-3, 6 KOs), 146.75, over ten rounds at the Korakuen Hall. Kobayashi, a graduate of TIT (the pretigious Tokyo Institute of Technology; a Japanese version of the MIT in the US) captured the national title by scoring an upset decision over Teruo Nagase in March of the previous year, but suffered a retinal injury to be inactive for thirteen months since. During his hiatus Maeda won the interim belt by blasting out Kazutaka Aihara in the opening session last December. Maeda tonight displayed a fine opening attack, dropping the champ Kobayashi with a vicious right uppercut in the first session. Kobayashi had a narrow escape and attempted to retaliate with his favorite infighting, but Maeda outhustled him with numerous punches all the way. Maeda, formerly the national light and super-light champ, is reportedly gunning for his fourth national 154-pound belt in the near future.
Ex-national 140-pound champ Tadashi Yuba (24-2-2, 16 KOs), 146.5, earned a nearly shutout decision (100-94, 99-94 and 99-93) over game and durable Jun Kitagawa (11-5, 9 KOs), 147, over ten. Japanese #4 minimum Teruo Misawa (14-1-3, 6 KOs), 105, took a unanimous nod (all 78-75) over Yuki Hashiguchi (9-13, 4 KOs), 104.75, over eight. Japanese #2 light Kokichi Tanaka (22-8-1, 10 KOs), 137.25, eked out a hairline majority duke (78-77, 78-76 and 77-77) over Kensuke Fumoto (13-5-1, 7 KOs), 137.25, over eight. Yasuhiro Kondo (7-1-2, 5 KOs), 140, sank Thailander Monkondet Sit-Ubon (4-3, 1 KO), 139, with a single body shot at 0:23 of the third canto in an eight.
Promoter: Teiken Promotions.
(4-17-04)