March 15, 2008
March 15, 2008
TOKYO, JAPAN
In an encounter of southpaw ex-world challengers WBA#9 /WBC#22 lightweight Kengo Nagashima (33-3-2, 15 KOs) (left), 134, came off the canvas in the second round, fought back hard and earned a close but unanimous decision (95-94, 96-94 and 97-94) over WBC#25/OPBF#2 Filipino Jimrex Jaca (28-4-3, 13 KOs), 133.75, over ten heats on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. It was a very good fight with the lefty speedsters kept swapping fast combinations from the beginning to the end. Jaca, who had failed to win the WBO feather belt from Juan Manuel Marquez via ninth round TKO in the previous year, decked Nagashima with a well-timed right hook to the button, and went all out for a kill with the bell coming to his rescue. Since then, it became a see-saw affair, as Nagashima tried to outjab Jaca, eight years his junior at 24, and Jaca kept boring in with roundhouse lefts and rights. Nagashima swept the seventh through ninth to manage to eke out a hairline decision.
In a quest for a vacant Japanese 135-pound belt renounced by Nagashima, #2 Ichitaro Ishii (19-2-1, 16 KOs), 135, exploded a vicious left hook to drop #1 Hiroshi Nakamori (23-2-1, 14 KOs), 134.5, a prefight favorite, and followed it up to cause the refereefs intervention at the second knockdown at 0:46 of the second round in a scheduled 10-round elimination bout. Having previously failed to win the national belt by a lopsided decision to Nagashima, Ishii looked so much determined to win the belt that he positively attacked the faster opponent from the outset, which paid off well.
Promoter: 18 Koga Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Nagashima-Jaca main event).
(3-15-08)