February 12, 2007
AMAGASAKI, JAPAN
OPBF welter champ Taisei Marumoto (200-7-1, 9 KOs), 147, barely kept his regional belt as he came off the canvas in the seventh, but controlled the fight with accurate jabs and finally halted bloodied Yoshinori Takenaka (22-7-1, 20 KOs), 145.5, at 0:33 of the ninth round on Monday in Osaka, Japan.
Marumoto, making his initial defense since dethroning Hiorshi Yamaguchi via upset TKO, made good use of his left hand, taking the initiative against the hard-punching challenger. Takenaka, however, exploded a wicked left hook, dropping the champ to have the tide turn in the seventh. Takenaka, in the eighth, unfortunately sustained a bad laceration, which was examined by the ringside physician twice. As the champ bounced his face off with good combinations in the fatal ninth, the referee declared a halt to save the gory challenger from further punishment.
Ex-OPBF welter champ Rev Santillan (23-3-1, 17 KOs), 150, had a tough time but earned a unanimous verdict (96-94, 98-03 and 97-93) over Shana Kisaragi (5-4-3, 2 KOs), 149.25, over ten. Santillan is promised to get a mandatory crack at Marumoto in this coming June.
In an encounter of ex-OPBF fly champs, Noriyuki Komatsu (22-3-5, 10 KOs), 115, survived a third-round visit to the deck, and finally scored a come-from-behind KO of Thai southpaw Wameechok Singwangcha (17-4-0, 11KOs), 114, at 1:46 of the eighth round in a scheduled ten.
Promoter: Green Tsuda Promotions.
(2-12-07)