October 18, 2004
OSAKA, JAPAN-Very surprisingly Korean champ Jungbum Kim (23-2-1, 18 KOs), 139.75, captured the OPBF 140-pound belt as he dropped WBC #8 ranked defending champ Masakazu Satake (20-4-4, 13 KOs), 140, Japan, twice and finally knocked him out at 2:06 of the second round in a scheduled 12-round bout on Monday in Osaka, Japan.
Satake, making his tenth defense, was a prohibitive favorite, but might be a bit too overconfident and careless against the onrushing challenger. The southpaw champ tried to feel out the aggressive Koreanfs furious opening attack by utilizing his vaunted footwork, but took a vicious right to the button, badly hitting the deck. As he barely resumed fighting on, the bell came to his rescue with Satake returning to a wrong corner. The second saw Kim go forward to bring back the belt to his country and finally catch the still fading champ with a wicked right. Down he went. Satake failed to beat the count by Australian referee Charlie Lucas.
In the main event, hard-hitting Australian champ Sakio Bika (19-1-1, 12 KOs), 159.75, an Aussie resident coming from Cameroon, acquired the vacant OPBF middleweight belt (renounced by Sam Soliman) as he kept battering WBC #24 ranked game and gallant Japanese ruler Yoshihiro Araki (14-2, 7 KOs), 160, despite the latterfs occasional retaliations, and dropped him with a big right before halting him at 2:23 of the tenth session in a scheduled twelve-rounder. The powerful Bika had him quite groggy in the third, fifth and seventh rounds, but Araki came back hard to whip the early starter Bika to have him at bay in the sixth. But Bika was such a physically stronger man that he finally overwhelmed the Japanese champ with a flurry of punches. As the referee David Chung, Korea, declared a halt, Araki succumbed to the canvas due to his absorption of punishment.
Promoter: Senboku Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi. (10-18-04)