November 13, 2013
TOKYO, JAPAN
This reporter is tired with many world title bouts this week in Japan?four title goes in five days since last Sunday. Should you be a fight scribe here in Japan where there are nearly three hundred shows a year (five promotions a week on an average), you would need physical power, mental power, perseverance and diligence to cover numerous events, many press conferences, public workouts, weigh-ins, etc.
Today we saw another new world champ, if female, totaling sixteen world champions?eleven male and five female ones. Japanfs Naoko Shibata (11-3, 3 KOs), 107.5, acquired the vacant IBF female light-flyweight (108-pound) belt as she defeated previously unbeaten Mexican Alondra Garcia (11-1, only one KO), 107.75, in a ten-round elimination bout on Thursday in Tokyo, Japan.