November 13, 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN
WBC 105-pound champ Eagle Kyowa (17-1, 6 KOs), 105, barely kept his belt as he floored Mexican challenger Lorenzo Trejo (28-15, 15 KOs), 105, in the third, but hit the deck twice to be on the verge of a KO defeat in the sixth, and desperately fought back hard to win a hairline unanimous decision over twelve give-and-take rounds on Monday in Tokyo, Japan.
The official scorecards were as follows: Gale Van Hoy and Lynn Carter (both US) both 113-112, and Dongahn Park (Korea) 114-113, all in favor of the defending champ. The referee was Mike Griffin (Canada).
Eagle, 27, made a good start to dominate the first three rounds with ease. Furthermore, the champ decked the Mexican challenger with an overhand right to the temple in the third to have the crowd expect his easy and early victory.
The tide, however, turned from the fourth as Trejo, 29, kept stalking and punching regardless of precision in connecting with the target. The sixth surprisingly saw Trejo drop Eagle with a looping right to the face. The champ stood up and resumed fighting only to be decked with a same roundhouse right. The game and wild Mexican went all out for a kill, but the bell came to his rescue. Eagle had a very narrow escape.
The younger champ showed a remarkable recovery in dominating the following two rounds by cleverly outpunching the willing mixer. Trejo accelerated his energetic attack to make it a see-saw affair from the ninth. Eagle showed his belt in round eleven, when he suddenly turned loose with a flurry of punches to effectively hurt the Mexican hombre. It was Trejo that was in command in the final stanza, as Eagle punched out to look tired after his all-out rallies in the previous round, but Trejo was still fresh and pugnacious in stalking the fading titlist in the last three minutes.
Probably the champ Eagle wasn’t in tip-top shape since he looked sluggish from the fourth on and missed plenty of punches unlike in his previous showings. His defense was so loose that he occasionally absorbed Trejo’s big shots. It was only his pride and determination that Eagle could kept his prestigious belt despite his poor condition. We had never seen such a poor performance of Eagle, who might have had any physical or mental problem. Or he might be simply too overconfident due to Trejo’s mediocre credentials or his previous KO defeat by Filipino Rodel Mayol (whom Eagle defeated in his last defense this May) that Eagle himself witnessed in the Night of Champions in Cancun, Mexico, last January.
WBC supervisor: Edward Thangarajah (Thailand).
Promoter: Akihiko Honda’s Teiken Promotions.
(11-13-06)