June 7, 2008
TOKYO, JAPAN
OPBF#2 Konosuke Tomiyama (17-1, 5 KOs), 114.5, acquired the vacant OPBF super-flyweight belt (renounced by his world-rated stablemate Kohei Kono) as he earned a hairline split decision over OPBF#1 Thai national champ Norasingh Kiatprasanchai (15-13-1, 12 KOs), 115, over twelve close rounds on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.
The official tallies were as follows: scoring referee Jaebong Kim (Korea) 116-114, Nobuaki Uratani (Japan) 114-113, both for Tomiyama, and Anan Meksawan (Thailand) 114-115 for Norasingh.
It was a see-saw affair from the outset as each aimed at the breadbasket in the close quarter. Tomiyama, in round five, connected with a well-timed right and floored the veteran Thailander, but the ref called it a slip. Norasingh showed his best in the seventh, when he landed solid left hooks to the Japanese boxer time and again. They fought on even terms in the last three rounds. It was their rematch with Tomiyama having been awarded a close and controversial decision here, and they followed a similar pattern again as in their first encounter.
In the main event of a twinbill, Japanese middleweight ruler Keiji Eguchi (18-1, 12 KOs), 159.75, successfully kept his national belt as he demolished Manabu Komatsu (6-11, 1 KO), 159.25, at 0:34 of the third session in a scheduled ten. Eguchi, a southpaw ex-sumo wrestler, caught the overmatched challenger with strong southpaw lefts and decked him in the second and the fatal third.
Promoter: Watanabe Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Tomiyama-Norasingh OPBF elimination bout).
(6-7-08)