March 3, 2012
TOKYO, JAPAN
OPBF top ranked Japanese bantam champ Ryosuke Iwasa (11-1, 8 KOs), 118, registered his initial defense as he annihilated JBC#2 contender Yuki Murai (20-16-4, 6 KOs), 117.5, with a single southpaw left to the button at 3:00 of the opening session on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.
It reminded us of an unforgettable first-round demolition of Hiroyuki Ebihara over Pone Kingpetch with a similar southpaw left shot producing a dramatic coronation of the world flyweight championship in 1963. Iwasa, 22, had failed to win the national belt from current WBC ruler Shinsuke Yamanaka via tenth-round stoppage despite showing a grueling performance last March. As Yamanaka renounced the belt, Iwasa entered an elimination bout with Jerope Mercado to win the vacant throne. In the first defense Iwasa, a tall lefthander, exploded a picture-perfect left to the pinpoint of the chin, dropping the game challenger to the deck with a thud. Murai, 32 in his fortieth bout, desperately raised himself up and looked almost ready to go on. The ref showed a gesture of “come on”, so did Murai step forward. He then abruptly fell forward face first to the canvas to have the third man toll the fatal ten. Iwasa is gunning for a rematch with Yamanaka next time with the world belt on the line in the future.
Unbeaten super-middleweight Hiromitsu Miura (9-0, 4 KOs), 171.75, connected with busy combinations upstairs and downstairs, and sank Wahid Khan (13-15-5, 8 KOs), 172, from Fiji, at 1:44 of the second session in a scheduled eight.
Promoter: Celes Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Miura-Khan bout).
(3-3-2012)