Japan Ends Year With Three World Title Fights

Japan, Land of the Rising Sun and a country where they like big fights in the middle of the week, saw three world title contests take place on Tuesday, two at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo and one at the remarkably named Bodymaker Colosseum in Osaka.

Osaka saw a clash of unbeaten fighters as WBA light flyweight king Kazuto Ioka, 14-0 (9), met the challenge posed by Nicaragua’s Felix Alvarado, 18-1 (15).

While Ioka on paper has had less fights than Alvarado, the Osaka man has traded in much more accomplished circles, going from winning four WBC and/or WBA minimumweight bouts to two WBA light fly defenses, giving him a huge advantage in experience over Alvarado, who had largely only fought domestic level competition.

But Alvarado came to fight and tried to make the best of his first world title opportunity, coming forward for the entire contest. Ioka handled the pressure like the seasoned vet he is, staying right there with the challenger and using sharp skills to outbox and outfight Alvarado in a bruising affair.

After 12 rounds, Ioka came out on top by scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 115-113, retaining the WBA strap for the third time.

Heading over to Tokyo, there were two super feather belts on the line; the WBC and the WBA ‘World”, held by Takashi Miura and Takashi Uchiyama, respectively.

WBC champ Miura, 27-2-2 (19), faced the challenge posed by WBC Continental Americas beltholder Dante Jardon, 24-4 (20), a chinny banger from Mexico.

Jardon came into the bout on the strength of an eighth round KO of former WBC champion Gamaliel Diaz in August and was expected to give Muira a stern challenge.

But southpaw Muira had other ideas and never gave the visitor an inch to breathe, putting body attack oriented pressure on Jardon from the start. The approach produced a knockdown of Jardon in the fifth and it as just a matter of time before the Mexico City man was stopped in the ninth.

Muira retained the title for the second time and could well be in line for a rematch with the other big name on the bill in Tokyo, WBA World champ Takashi Uchiyama, 21-0-1 (17), who rose from the canvas to halt Muira on cuts in 2011.

Last night Uchiyama was putting his crown at risk for the eighth occasion, meeting Japanese titlist Daiki Kaneko, 19-3-3 (12), who had not lost in his previous 16 contests.

Kaneko rose to occasion and gave full effort in his first bout above domestic level but was beaten to the punch in many exchanges, showing signs of the punishment around both eyes.

But the Yokahama man hit the jackpot in the tenth when he dropped the champion but could not better his work when the action resumed. Uchiyama managed to battle the challenger evenly the rest of the way to retain his belt by three scores of 117-110.