By Joe Koizumi
Unbeaten WBA super-featherweight champ Takashi Uchiyama (18-0, 15 KOs), Japan, will put his belt on the line against Filipino hard-punching southpaw Michael Farenas (34-3-3, 26 KOs) in Saitama (close to Tokyo), Japan, on July 16. Uchiyama, making his fifth defense, wishes to extend his KO streak to six in world title bouts since he dethroned Juan Carlos Salgado via twelfth-round dramatic stoppage in January 2010. Also announced was the WBC flyweight mandatory title bout, where newly crowned Sonny Boy Jaro (34-10-5, 24 KOs), a free-swinging Filipino, will risk his belt against Japanese ex-Olympian Toshiyuki Igarashi (15-1-1, 10 KOs) on the same bill. Jaro stunned the world by demolishing long-reigning champ Pongsaklek Wonjongkam by an unexpected sixth-round TKO in the defending titlist’s home turf Thailand. Igarashi, a former representative in Olympic Games in Athens, is a fast-punching southpaw dependent on speed and skills, while the champ Jaro is a power-puncher as he so impressively dispatched Pongsaklek. It will be a couple of confrontations between Japanese and Filipinos to be co-promoted by Watanabe and Teiken Promotions.
