Kogawa wins vacant Japanese 112lb belt

By Joe Koizumi
Photo: Boxing Beat

Fast but light-punching WBC#13 Takuya Kogawa (18-2, 10 KOs), 111.5, acquired the vacant Japanese flyweight belt as he kept throwing pit-a-pat punches all night and outsped hard-hitting but stiff and slower Shigetaka Ikehara (22-3-2, 18 KOs), 112, winning a close but unanimous decision (96-95 twice and 96-94) over ten heats on Thursday in Tokyo, Japan.

The national belt had been renounced by ex-Olympian Toshiyuki Igarashi, who became the official challenger against WBC ruler Pongsaklek Wonjongkam by defeating Mexican Wilbert Uicab on points last November. We expected a much better fight between Kogawa and Ikehara, neither of whom impressed the crowd due to their lack of precision in swapping punches. Kogawa threw great many punches in the air, while Ikehara kept waiting too long and only tossed a less accurate punch at a time. Kogawa, who once had an ambitious crack at the WBC 112-pound belt only to lopsidedly lose to Pongsaklek in Thailand, failed to hurt his opponent at all. Ikehara was simply a disappointment as he displayed nothing of what people had expected him owing to his power-punching. Without hitting the target his vaunted hard-punches couldn’t produce any damage to the busy-punching speedster Kogawa.

Promoter: Miyata Promotions.

January 27th, 2012

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