## OMORI, TOKUNAGA KEEP JAPANESE 118LB, 135LB BELTS

September 17, 2015

Kyoto is a beautiful city with great many temples and shrines, and the old city is usually calm at night. But only a place in Kyoto was so noisy, enthusiastic and hot on the night of yesterday (Wednesday), and itfs Shimazu Arena Kyoto (formerly called Kyoto Prefectural Gymnasium) where a couple of national title bouts took place before local adherents for native champions in their first defenses. WBC#7/WBA#11/WBO#3/IBF#6 unbeaten southpaw Shohei Omori (15-0, 10 KOs), 118, registered his initial defense of the Japanese bantamweight belt as he lopsidedly battered two-time world challenger Hirofumi Mukai (11-4-2, 1 KO), 118, dropped him twice and finally halted him with the refereefs intervention at 1:37 of the sixth round. The 5f8h lefty Omorifs performance was so impressive that he positively landed fast and solid combinations to the game challenger, and scored a first knockdown with a vicious left to the belly in the third and again with another body shot in the fourth. Aggressive and agile, Omori, in the fatal sixth, swarmed over the fading foe with a flurry of punches upstairs and downstairs and almost sent him back to the deck. The ref Miyazaki quickly called a halt, when the loserfs corner sent a towel for surrender. Omori entered the world top ten thanks to his fourth-round stoppage of world rated Mexican Christian Esquivel in May of the previous year, and captured the national belt by stunning the Tokyo crowd with an annihilating quick stoppage of defending titlist Kentaro Masuda in only three sessions this April. Omori, his victim Mukai, WBC bantam titlist Shinsuke Yamanaka and Olympic gold medalist Ryota Murata all graduated from South Kyoto high school, where they learned how to box and boxed as amateur boys. Omori, 22, dispatched Mukai, seven years his senior, and looks like a future world champion with his good potential (good height, southpaw, hard-punching and strong heart).

In the first title go, Japanese lightweight ruler Kota Tokunaga (16-2, 11 KOs), 135, very barely kept his belt when he was apparently losing but scored a come-from-behind stoppage over top rated Yuhei Suzuki (16-5, 12 KOs), 135, at 1:50 of the tenth and final stanza. In his third attempt to win a national belt, the determined challenger Suzuki had an upper hand from the outset with his eye-catching aggressiveness with which he was leading on points after the fifth session (due to the open scoring system under the JBC): 50-46 twice and 48-47, all for Suzuki. The 5f10h upright stylist Tokunaga, from the sixth on, attempted to counter the onrushing challenger with solid rights and uppercuts, but Suzuki kept attacking on despite his absorption of the champfs occasional counters. The tenth and final session witnessed Tokunaga turn loose with a desperate combination and send him badly sprawling to the deck. The third man Kawakami promptly waved it off and raised the champfs arm. Prior to the dramatic stoppage, Suzuki had been leading on all cards: 87-85 twice and 86-85. Some Suzuki supporters repented of his recklessly mixing it up in the last round and gloomily said he should have kept circling to keep his accumulation of points. But therefs no open scoring prior to the final session, and Suzuki hadnft so clearly realize hefd been leading with a couple of judges having him in favor by two points. Therefs no second-guessing in boxing.

Promoter: Woz Promotions.

(9-17-2015)

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