April 6, 2012
Former WBC bantam and feather champ Hozumi Hasegawa (30-4, 13 KOs), 125.5, successfully made a comeback after after a twelve-month hiatus when he chalked up a TKO victory over previously unbeaten Mexican Felipe Carlos Felix (18-1, 10 KOs), 126, at 2:28 of the seventh round in a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday in Tokyo, Japan.
The Japanese southpaw, 31, forfeited his second WBC throne in the feather category to Jhonny Gonzalez with a single right shot in the fourth despite winning on points last April.
Hasegawa took the leadoff from the outset, and steadily piled up points as he battered the nervous Mexican upstairs and downstairs. But Felix withstood the ex-champ's assault and occasionally responded to his rally with solid rights.
Hasegawa sustained a gash caused by a headbutt in the fifth, but finally caught Felix with a flurry of punches, dropping him midway in the seventh. The ex-champ furiously followed it up to prompt the referee's intervention, but he failed to show his previous sharpness, which will be shown on his future comeback trail.
(4-6-2012)