March 4, 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN-WBA 105-pound champ Yutaka Niida (20-1-3, 8 KOs), 104, barely kept his belt as he earned a unanimous decision over Colombian Ronald Barrera (14-2-1, 8 KOs), 105, over twelve lousy rounds on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. Some 2,000 fans were in attendance at the Korakuen Hall, where they watched a monotonous, least spectacular and most disappointing affair. The official scores were as follows: Jean Francois Toupin (France) 117-111, Wansoo Yuh (Korea) 116-112, and Chalerm Prayadsab (Thailand) 115-112, all in favor of the defending champ. The referee was Derek Milham (Australia), who was only the winner in the ring with his good refereeing in comparison with the two losers, the champ and the challenger, who had the crowd very much bored.
The Colombian kept punching all night, but seldom caught the defensive and negative champ, while the Japanese seemed just content to backpedal and avert the challenger’s rallies almost perfectly for two minutes and forty seconds and abruptly turned loose with solid and accurate punches for just twenty seconds in every round until the tenth. As Barrera kept missing great many punches, Niida might manage to win more points on the official tallies, but it was one of the least interesting world title bouts ever seen at the Hall. Aware of the fight being close, Niida, encouraged by his manager and ex-world top feather contender Mitsunori Seki, furiously attacked Barrera to gain two points in the last two sessions. Otherwise, we would have seen a closer verdict.
What happened to Niida? Why was he so lazy (or economical) in throwing punches to the young but less skillful challenger? Has he caught cold? We couldn’t understand why he showed such a lackluster performance despite his victory? The result itself wasn’t controversial, as Niida obviously looked a winner because of the difference of precision in punching the opponent. But it was his worst showing in his four defenses in terms of his lack of action.
Niida, a hard-hitting counterpuncher, looked sharp early in the contest, having won three rounds in the first four sessions with clean effective shots by his trade-mark left hooks. The champ inexplicably forgot to throw punches, in rounds five and six, only to keep retreating and averting many but inaccurate combinations of Barrera, who might gain points only due to his aggressiveness, not due to his effectiveness. Niida was in command with his 20-second attack in the seventh and ninth, while Barrera dominated the eighth and tenth stanzas with his whirlwind attack with least precision.
Had it ended after the tenth, it would have been recorded as the very worst title bout ever held in Japan in history. But Niida’s last surge in the eleventh and twelfth saved the bad impression of the audience that might repent of having come and seen this affair. Niida caught the less experienced Colombian with big left hooks and solid straight rights to score valuable two points in the end.
Niida said, “I feel sorry not to be able to show good performance. It was difficult to handle such an aggressive opponent.” Barrera claimed, “I thought I won. Niida was just an ordinary boxer. I wasn’t impressed by his way of fighting.” Anyway, the crowed quickly left the Hall to have a drink to forget the nightmare-like terrible fight.
Japanese 140-pound champ, WBC #14 ranked southpaw Norio Kimura (22-5-2, 13 KOs), 140, decked his sixth defense by demolishing previously unbeaten top contender Shinya Nagase (10-1-1, 6 KOs), 139.75, en route to a TKO at 2:20 of the seventh round. Kimura, a hard-hitting lefty, sent the challenger to the deck twice in the opening session, battered him up with his brutal attack and finally sank him with a flurry of punches in the seventh, when the referee wisely called a halt without bothering to count.
Promoter: Teiken Promotions in association with Yokohama Hikari Promotions.
WBA supervisor: Alan Kim (Korea).
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi.
(3-4-06)