## KIYOTA WINS OPBF INTERIM 168LB BELT

April 26, 2008

TOKYO, JAPAN

Muscular Japanese prospect Yuzo Kiyota (15-2-1, 13 KOs), 168, acquired the OPBF interim super-middle belt as he was awarded a TKO win over Zulfikar Joy Ali (26-7-6-1NC, 22 KOs), 163.75, at the end of the seventh round in a scheduled twelve on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. Though Kiyota was originally slated to have a crack at Wayne Parker Jr., the Australian champ suffered a thumb injury to become unavailable, so Ali was decided to be an emergency substitute for him in the eliminator. Kiyota, 24, had the upper hand, battering the southpaw Fijian with left hooks to the face and the breadbasket as the contest progressed. He pinned Ali to the ropes with a flurry of punches to have him at bay in the sixth. Though Ali showed his best with smashing southpaw lefts to the face in the fifth, he abruptly complained of his left hand pain and decided to quit after the seventh. Before the abandonment the official tallies were: scoring referee Bruce McTavish (Philippines) 69-64, Gus Mercurio (Australia) 68-65 and Yuji Fukuchi (Japan) 68-66, all for Kiyota.

### Undercard:

Former Japanese bantam champ, WBC#20 Masayuki Mitani (22-3, 10 KOs), 122, survived a first round visit and fought back hard to earn a well-received majority decision (97-92, 96-93 and 95-95) over Satoshi Niwa (7-10-3, 2 KOs), 122, over ten. Unbeaten JBC#12 Manabu Koguchi (9-0, 5 KOs), 122, made short work of Narongsak Wor Surapol (8-4-1, 1 KO), 122, at 0:44 into the opening canto of a scheduled eight. The show started at 11:40AM and ended at 2:00PM as the Hall was rented for another event at night.

Promoter: Global Kyoei Promotions.

(4-26-08)

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