December 31, 2015
NAGOYA, JAPAN
Unbeaten Japanese youngster who won the belt in his fifth pro bout, WBO minimumweight champ Kosei Tanaka (6-0, 3 KOs) , 104.75, barely retained his belt as he came off the canvas in the fifth and sank Filipino challenger Vic Saludar (11-2, 9 KOs), 104.75, for the count at 2:15 of the sixth round in Nagoya, Japan, on New Year Eve.
It’s a dramatic come-from-behind knockout as Tanaka was behind on points: 50-45 twice (Lynne Carter of US and Zoltan Enyedi from Hungary) and 49-45 (Levi Martinez of US), all in favor of the game challenger who had the champ on the deck with a straight right midway in the fifth. The 20-year-old university student Tanaka, however, dug a vicious shot to the side of the belly and had him down in agony for the count. The referee was Mike Ortega (US).
For Tanaka, formerly four-time national high school champ, his apparent overconfidence cost such a tough battle. Before the fight, the baby-faced champ boldly predicted, “I’ll knock him out without problem.” In his eventually successful first defense of the belt that he had acquired by defeating durable Mexican hombre Julian Yedras last May, Tanaka didn’t look sharp except a moment that he sank the better-than-expected challenger Saludar.
The Filipino challenger, WBO Asia Pacific 105-pound titlist, reportedly had an amateur career of some 500 contests, and had kept winning his last nine bouts since March 2014. The first round saw Saludar outjabbing the still nervous champ and connecting with sharp left-right combinations to the face. What Tanaka intended was to score a spectacular knockout before the crowd, and obviously lacked his usual smoothness in moving and punching.
The second also witnessed Saludar, five years his senior at 25, take the initiative with light but fast combinations?left, right and left uppercut to the belly?to have the champ on the defensive. Too eager for a quick stoppage, Tanaka looked so nervous and tense that he couldn’t display his trademark hand speed only to be obliged to defend himself from the challenger’s opening rallies.
Saludar, residing Manny Pacquiao’s home-town General Santos City in Mindanao, seized the rhythm and kept on throwing quick jabs and combos to frustrate the young champ in the third session. The Filipino underdog made an amazingly good start and swept the first three rounds.
The enfant terrible Tanaka, in round four, started his engine late and responded to the challenger’s fast combinations with stronger shots to the face and the belly. Two judges rendered the fourth to Saludar and one to Tanaka, which eventually was a single point that the champ took on all the judges’ tallies prior to a forthcoming stoppage.
The fifth round shocked the partisan crowd in Nagoya, as Saludar connected with a beautiful right cross over the champ’s jab and had Tanaka sprawling to the deck with a thud. The youngster promptly raised himself and resumed fighting, but was obviously bewildered with his humiliating visit to the canvas. It was the very first experience for Tanaka to hit the deck through his amateur and professional career, and his pride was hurt without doubt.
His father and trainer Hitoshi (formerly national arm wrestling champ) advised his son to come close to the Filipino to nullify his hand speed and work the body. So did he. Kosei made it in a close range and pinned him to the ropes. Then his vicious left hook to the liver exploded so heavily that Saludar went down with the ropes to his back.
The ref Ortega tolled a fatal ten over Saludar, still sitting on the canvas and complaining of a pain on the breadbasket. It’s a spectacular come-from-behind knockout. The audience was in a frenzy.
The victor and still champ Tanaka said in the ring, “I couldn’t show a good fight, but please forgive me with the eventual win by knockout.”
The crestfallen loser repented of his carelessness, saying, “It’s a very heavy body shot. I couldn’t withstand such a strong punch to the body. I tried to stand up but couldn’t breathe for a while. I’ve had a good experience.”
Tanaka’s elder brother Ryomei, 22, is a good amateur prospect that hopes to represent Japan in the next Olympic Games in Brazil. He recently won the gold medal in the pre-Olympic tournament in Rio de Janeiro this December, and wishes to win the medal. He reviewed his brother’s fight, “It’s hard to fight back in such a losing game after suffering a knockdown. Kosei has heart, so he could do it.”
When you are young, you may dream that anything can be possible and you can accomplish anything that you plan. But Tanaka is physically growing up day after day, and he might better consider moving up to the higher category sooner or later, as you cannot make your growing body smaller.
Promoter: Hatanaka Promotions.
WBO supervisor: Istvan “Ko-Ko” Kovacs from Hungary.
(12-31-2015)