March 7, 2010
NAGOYA, JAPAN
WBC#3/WBA#9 bantam, unbeaten Kohei Ohba (27-0-1, 11 KOs), 121, Japan, was befuddled by non-stop punching of OPBF#2 Filipino lefty veteran Eric Barcelona (50-17-5, 18 KOs), 119.5, but countered him with precision to earn a unanimous decision (97-93, 97-94 and 97-95) over ten hot rounds on Sunday in Nagoya, Japan.
Ohba, a Floyd Mayweather stylist, often enjoyed swaying back and averting Barcelona’s versatile combinations with his back to the ropes, and landed a fewer but more effective counters to the face and midsection. The shifty Japanese became aggressive in the eighth, when he caught the fading Filipino with good rights and stopped him from recklessly boring in. Though his performance was less satisfactory this night, Ohba is still one of the most talented 118-pounders here in Japan.
WBC#8 bantam Mikio Yasuda (16-4-2, 13 KOs), 118, gained the vacant Japanese national 118-pound throne by scoring a quick stoppage of JBC#1 ranked Takuro Kodama (21-7-5, 15 KOs), 117.5, at 0:30 into the second session of a scheduled ten. Yasuda’s explosiveness was shown in the opening round, when he caught him with a trade-mark right and had him fall on all fours. Kodama couldn’t recover from the damage only to be halted just after the second commenced.
Promoter: Hatanaka Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Ohba-Barcelona bout).
(3-7-10)