June 26, 2005
NAGOYA, JAPAN-Slick-punching Mexican Martin Castillo (27-1, 16 KOs), 114.5, kept his WBA 115-pound belt as he displayed his superior skills in outclassing and outpunching bull-like Japanese southpaw challenger Hideyasu Ishihara (16-4-1, 11 KOs), 115, over twelve hard-fought rounds on Sunday afternoon in Nagoya, Japan. Obviously Castillo was a winner, but it wasn’t as easy as he had expected due to Ishihara’s durability and determination. The official tallies were as follows: Cesar Ramos (Puerto Rico) and Pinit Prayadsab (Thailand) both 116-111, and Mikael Hook (Sweden) 116-112, all for the technically excellent Castillo. The referee was Stanley Christodoulou (South Africa).
It looked like a battle of a matador and a bull as Castillo, making his second defense, cleverly outmaneuvered the onrushing Japanese to pile more points. It was also a grudge fight as Castillo, in their first encounter in May of the previous year, was behind on points after the tenth round but scored a come-from-behind one-punch stoppage over the taller lefty in the eleventh here. Having improved much in defeating such name opponents as Alexander Munoz and Eric Morel, Castillo appeared confident enough to very positively start fireworks in the first round. The 28-year-old Mexican battered the high-guarded challenger’s side of the belly, and moved side-to-side to win the first three rounds with ease, while Ishihara, 29, kept coming forward and threw strong but less accurate southpaw lefts to the elusive champ. Ishihara’s aggressiveness apparently accelerated in the fourth, when Castillo was only content to avert his attack and counter the willing mixer in the fourth.
The fifth saw Castillo retreating but countering well with right-left combinations and solid body shots to the aggressive Japanese, who began to have the right optic swollen because of the champ’s left hooks. Castillo, in round six, was penalized a point for having repeatedly hit low when Ishihara remained pugnacious though he couldn’t catch the mark. The Mexican champ sustained a gash over the left eyebrow in the seventh, but his cutman Miguel Diaz straightened it out and Castillo swept all the rounds from the eighth on though Ishihara persistently going forward all the way.
Moving to-and-fro and side-to-side, Castillo kept catching the game but monotonous southpaw with sharp shots with precision. Ishihara was visibly slowing down especially in the last three rounds probably due to his accumulation of punishment by Castillo’s effective body bombardments in earlier rounds. Ishihara continued throwing punches but failed to catch the moving target rightly. Amazingly, Castillo, in the last session, so vigorously moved to show his stamina remaining that he often whipped the rough-and-tumble southpaw with effective short punches in the close quarter.
Castillo jubilantly said, “Ishihara was brave, but I gave him a lesson and kept piling up points to prove which the champ is.” As the champ reviewed, his punches were so effective all the way that Ishihara’s face finally became grotesquely swollen and his right eye was almost closed at the end of the hot affair.
|
Castillo | |||||||||||||
| C. RAMOS |
- |
- | - | - | - | 9(-1) | 9 | - | - | 9 | - | - | 116 |
| P. PRAYADSAB | - | - | 9 | - | - | 9(-1) | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | 116 |
| M. HOOK | - | - | - | 9 | - | 9(-1) | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | 116 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total | |
| M. HOOK | 9 | 9 | 9 | - | 9 | - | - | 9 | - | 9 | 9 | 9 | 112 |
| P. PRAYADSAB | 9 | 9 | - | 9 | 9 | - | - | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 111 |
| C. RAMOS | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | - | - | 9 | 9 | - | 9 | 9 | 111 |
|
Ishihara |
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Thai national champ Wethya Sakmuangklaeng (78-4, 50 KOs), 119.25, impressively captured the OPBF 122-pound belt by flattening WBC #9 ranked Japanese defending champ Masakazu Sugawara (22-3-4, 11 KOs), 121.5, with a southpaw right hook at 2:00 of the third round in a scheduled twelve. Sugawara, a taller footworker having dethroned compatriot Yasuo Kunimi in his last bout, kept circling to pay his respect to the Thailander’s longer career. Wethya, who had previously failed to win the WBC feather belt from Guty Espadas Jr. in Mexico in 2000, was in command in the first two sessions, and his vaunted right hook exploded to stretch the champ on the deck. As the ref realized Sugawara’s incapability of regaining his feet, he promptly declared a halt without bothering to count up to ten, it is registered as a TKO by the Japanese Commission.
WBC #27 ranked ex-Youth champ Masanori Sugita (19-1-2, 13 KOs), 125.75, came off the canvas in the ninth and earned a unanimous nod (98-92, 98-93 and 97-96) over OPBF #7 ranked feather Kulaabdaeng Kiatkrirnthr (22-7, 6 KOs), 125.5, Thailand, over ten. Ex-OPBF 115-pound challenger Shin Ogata (18-2-2, 8 KOs), Japanese #2 contender, 118, flattened Thai #10 fly contender Phayap Pathavkorn-Gym, 117.25, at 1:23 of the fifth canto in a scheduled ten. Unbeaten up-and-coming local prospect, Japanese #8 bantam Akio Konishi (15-0, 13 KOs) was losing on points, but opened a bad gash of compatriot Hiromasa Ohashi (9-5-3, 5 KOs), 118.25, to be awarded a fortunate TKO win at 2:48 of the seventh round in a scheduled ten. Shoji Kawase (12-1-3, 7 KOs), 134.75, dispatched Thai #9 feather Thongcharoen Mahasapcondo (10-17, 1 KO), 133.25, at 1:09 of the second round in a scheduled ten.
Promoter: Matsuda Promotions in association with Teiken Promotions.
WBA supervisor: Alberto Sarmiento (Venezuela).
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi.
(6-25-05)