Tsuji
upsets Yaegashi
July 1, 2008
By Joe Koizumi
Sensational
six-round tournaments to decide next mandatory challengers to Japanese
national champs started on Tuesday at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo,
Japan, and we witnessed a stunning upset. Unheralded JBC#2 minimum
Masatate Tsuji (11-1-2, 3 KOs), 104.75, a busy-punching but methodical
southpaw, took the initiative and withstood a fifth-round retaliation
of ex-OPBF champ and ex-world challenger, WBC#18 Akira Yaegashi
(7-2, 5 KOs), 105, to score an upset majority decision (58-57 twice
and 58-58) over six. No one had expected Tsuji's triumph, but the
workman stylist persistently kept stalking the footworker and throwing
punches regardless of precision.
Masatate
Tsuji
Probably overconfident,
Yaegashi was waiting too long for openings to score big counters
and it was only in the fifth that he started his engine. His laziness
in the first four sessions cost this tune-up fight for Yaegashi
who is gunning for his second world title shot, as he had failed
to win the WBC 105-pound belt from Eagle Den Junlaphan in June of
the previous year.
Former national feather
champ, JBC#7 Koji Umezu (14-8-1, 6 KOs), 125.75, eked out a split
nod (59-57 twice and 56-58) over JBC#3 Yasuki Takemoto (12-2-2,
3 KOs), 126, the younger brother of ex-world challenger Zaiki, over
six. Umezu cleverly confused and frustrated the taller but methodical
prospect with his tricky mobility and unorthodox attacks.
JBC#5 Hiroshi Nakamori
(24-2-1, 14 KOs), 134.5, scored a shutout decision (60-53 twice
and 60-52) over ex-OPBF challenger, JBC#7 Koji Samejima (16-3-1,
6 KOs), 134.75, over six. It became a much more lopsided affair
than expected, as Nakamori was too fast and pugnacious for the sluggish
Samejima.
Ex-national title challenger,
JBC#7 Kenji Saegusa (18-6-1, 9 KOs), 118, landed lighter but busier
punches to game but less skillful Takafumi Himeno (17-5-2, 5 KOs),
117.5, to be awarded a split decision (58-57 twice and 57-58) over
six.
Hideyuki Ohashi, East
Japan president of the JPBA (the union of managers) as well as ex-WBC/WBA
105-pound champ, positively pushed ahead with this tourney to stimulate
the popularity of boxing and forced his golden boy Yaegashi into
such a tournament only for the qualification to have a mandatory
shot to the national champ. Ohashi might be greatly stunned by Yaegashi's
unexpected defeat. But this tourney is interesting and meaningful.
Promoter: East Japan
Pro Boxing Association. |
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Kuroki
retains 105 belt
June 30, 2008
By Joe Koizumi
WBA#3/WBC#8 Japanese minimum champ Yasutaka Kuroki (18-3, 13 KOs),
105, impressively kept his national belt as he floored ex-champ
Makoto Suzuki (21-13-2, 13 KOs), 105, twice and halted him with
a volley of punches to prompt the referee’s intervention at 1:46
of the sixth round on Monday in Tokyo, Japan.
Kuroki, making his third defense since dethroning Teruo Misawa
in May last year, quickly decked the 36-year-old challenger with a
southpaw right hook in the first. The champ went all out for a kill
but absorbed a vicious left hook, almost losing his equilibrium. The
faster, younger and more talented Kuroki, 26, kept peppering and moving
to-and-fro – a la Ivan Calderon – though Suzuki came out fighting
with heavier lefts and rights to the elusive target. The fatal sixth
saw Kuroki catch the veteran with a solid left to drop him for a mandatory
eight and Suzuki almost resume fighting only to be rescued by the
third man.
For the fast-rising
Kuroki who thus registered 12 wins straight, his regrettable blemish
in his career is a first-round KO defeat by current OPBF ruler Toshikazu
Waga in a six rounder five years ago. Reportedly Kuroki himself
wishes to go and face Waga in the OPBF champ’s home-turf, Nagoya,
to avenge his previous annihilation, but it is an intricate question
whether it will really materialize at this moment as neither party
refuses to go to the other’s hometown.
Promoter: Yamaguchi
Tsuchiura Promotions.
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