January 21, 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN-Unbeaten WBA#7/WBC#11 ranked Hiroyuki Enoki (24-0-1, 18 KOs), 126, acquired the vacant OPBF feather belt as he dropped Thai national champ Denthaksin Soonkilanoyanai (6-4, 4 KOs), 126, three times en route to an automatic KO at 1:59 of the second round on Saturday night in Tokyo, Japan. The regional throne had been renounced by Takashi Koshimoto, who will make an ambitious crack at the WBC crown against Injin Chi of Korea in Fukuoka, Japan, on this coming January 29. Enoki, a flat-footed but hard-punching ex-Japanese champ, decked the Thailander in agony with a wicked body shot in the beginning of the second. Though barely standing up, Denthaksin returned to the canvas with Enoki’s quick follow-up. The Thai champ managed to resume fighting, but badly hit the deck with solid body shots for the third time in this round.
Fast-punching Kazuhisa Watanabe (12-2, 7 KOs), 126, also won the vacant Japanese national feather belt (relinquished by his stablemate Enoki) when he floored a still nervous and stiff Motokazu Abe, the top contender at 125.25, three times and scored an impressive knockout win at 1:59 of the first round in a scheduled ten. The JBC#2 ranked Watanabe finely penetrated Abe’s peek-a-boo guard with a vicious right uppercut midway in the round. He swarmed over the bewildered foe and sent him to the deck twice more. The loser’s manager Kenji Yonekura harshly protested the ref Kodai Kumazaki, insisting that Abe’s third visit wasn’t a knockdown, but a slip. The Japanese commission, however, gave the cold shoulder to his furious protest. Some crazy aficionado of Abe threw a cup of beer with poor precision, and it made yours truly’s well-tailored jacket wet with cerveza.
Promoter: Kadoebi Jewel Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Enoki-Denthaksin main event).
(1-21-06)