February 16, 2008
February 16, 2008
TOKYO, JAPAN
OPBF#7/JBC#2 unheralded challenger Motoki Sasaki (29-7-1, 19 KOs), 146.25, astoundingly captured the OPBF welterweight belt as he impressively chalked up a stunning stoppage of WBC#19 defending champ, Japan-based Filipino southpaw Rev Santillan (24-4-1, 17 KOs), 146.5, at 2:59 of the sixth round in a scheduled twelve rounder on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.
Also, WBC/WBA#4 OPBF super-fly ruler Kohei Kono (21-3, 7 KOs), 114.5, successfully kept his OPBF and national belts (as both were at stake) when he pounded out a close but unanimous decision (114-113, 116-113 and 117-112) over WBA#13 ex-world challenger Kuniyuki Aizawa (13-3-1, 10 KOs), 114.75, over twelve.
Shorter but sturdy Japanese Sasaki, 32, ex-national 140-pound champ, stunned the audience with his furious opening attack to have the defending champ Santillan, 30, bewildered on the outset of the first round. Sasaki, four inches shorter than the 5’11” champ, had the crowd on its feet again when he floored Santillan with a well-timed left hook following a straight right in the closing seconds of the second session.
Santillan couldn’t get in his rhythm, absorbing Sasaki’s desperate attack to lose the third and fourth. The champ sustained a gash on the forehead caused by an accidental butt in the third, and his face became badly puffed by the challenger’s combinations. But the lefty champ, in round five, seemed to find the range and started whipping the elusive challenger with his trade-mark long southpaw lefts to win back a point.
The sixth and fatal round saw Sasaki, moving to-and-fro, seldom throw punches to be content only to block Santillan’s retaliations. People thought Sasaki was taking a rest because of his too high pace in the previous five rounds. Sasaki, however, suddenly turned loose with a four-punch combo and his vicious left hook dropped the champ with only twenty seconds remaining. Going all out for a kill, Sasaki pinned him to the corner and floored him again with a barrage of punches, when the referee Shimakawa declared a well-received halt as the Filipino had no power left to go on. It was a really stunning upset.
Rex Wakee Salud, Filipino ex-manager of Santillan in attendance, surprisingly disclosed an ill-fated schedule of the dethroned champ, saying, “Rev was slated to meet Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on April 26. He was supposed to take a $200,000 purse. This defeat has blasted his lucrative payday.” Top Rank will have to book another opponent against Chavez Jr. than the formerly three-time OPBF champ.
Kono, a busy-punching OPBF and national champ, was in command in the fist five rounds with ease, as he was aggressive from the start, while Aizawa, as usual, kept circling without taking the initiative. Aizawa, who failed to win the WBA belt from Alexander Munoz in his last bout, began to trade punches with the onrushing champ from the sixth onward. Since then, it became a see-saw affair, as Kono kept throwing more punches without precision and the retreating conterpuncher Aizawa sometimes connected with right crosses.
The referee Uratani, in the tenth, penalized a point from the champ for having hit rabbit punches to the back part of the head, though Kono remained positive and pugnacious. Aware of being behind on points, Aizawa, for the first time in this game, turned loose in the twelfth and final stanza, when he occasionally caught the still energetic but less skillful champ to win a point on the scorecards of all the judges. But it wasn’t enough to overcome his early deficit on points.
We wonder why Aizawa didn’t start his fireworks a little earlier. Should he have done so, he might have had a possibility of winning this competitive game. Though it was never Kono’s best performance, he looked an obvious winner, having dominated more rounds with his volumes of combinations.
Promoter: Watanabe Promotions.
(2-16-08)