February 5, 2006
NAGOYA, JAPAN-OPBF bantam champ and ex-WBC fly ruler Malcolm Tunacao (19-1-3, 13 KOs), 118, kept his belt but was very furious against a highly debatable drawn verdict with previously unbeaten local prospect Kohei Ohba (13-0-1, 8 KOs), 117.5, over twelve one-sided rounds on Sunday in Nagoya. The official scores were as follows: referee Ignatius Missailidis (Australia) 115-114 for Tunacao, Yasuo Tomoto (Japan) 115-113 for Ohba, and Teodolo Alivio (Philippines) 115-115. It looked like a typical split decision, but the fact wasn’t what the tallies indicated. The more experienced Filipino southpaw kept peppering the peek-a-boo styled challenger and penetrating his guard with sharp lefts to control the affair all night. Ohba remained too cautious and negative without throwing many punches, and looked just content to block the busy-punching champ with his tight guard. Ohba turned loose only in the sixth and seventh rounds with his abrupt blitzkrieg to the midsection of the crafty champ, but his attacks weren’t effective enough to hurt the champ. Tunacao appeared to dominate all rounds from the eighth on to confirm his victory. When the official verdict was announced, even the audience in Nagoya was greatly stunned at the unexpected draw since Tunacao obviously looked a winner. It’s also a question why the Filipino judge Alivio scored so severely against his compatriot Tunacao, though he seemed to have dominated all rounds but two or three. Also, the Japanese judge who scored for the challenger had better go to an ophthalmologist. It’s a shameful night for the Japanese boxing. It took place beneath the Suico-Sugita OPBF superfeather title bout.
Japanese #5 minimum Toshikazu Waga (11-3, 3 KOs), 105, floored Thailander Detchsak Sithsaithong, 103.5, three times en route to an automatic KO at 2:31 of the first round in a supporting eight.
Promoter: Hatanaka Promotions.
(2-5-06)