WBA Super Feather kingpin Edwin Valero and WBC Bantamweight Champion Hozumi Hasegawa were in action at the Nihon Budokan in Tokyo on Thursday night and both retained their titles.

Valero, 24-0 (24), kept his magnificent knockout streak alive with a seventh round pasting of former Japanese Lightweight titlist Takehiro Shimada, 22-4-1 (15).

Shimada used his considerable experience to evade the brunt of the Venezuelan southpaw's firepower and was only down by two rounds on one of the scorecards but the 36 year's luck ran out at 1:55 of the seventh frame when Valero found the target with a crisp right hook, straight left combination to the head.

Valero retains his title for the fourth time and continues his campaign to engage Manny Pacquiao in a high profile showdown but the multi-weight Filipino legend is on a trajectory to face world light welter champ Ricky Hatton later this year. More...