Yamanaka retains his title
WBO 105-pound champ Ryuya Yamanaka (16-2, 5 KOs), impressively defended his belt in his initial as he picked up a TKO victory after the eighth round when Mexican Moises Calleros (28-8-1, 16 KOs), quit on the stool because of his absorption of punishment in the eighth round.
Yamanaka utilized his faster left hand and was leading on all the scorecards prior to Calleros bowing out: Gerard White (US), Jose Roberto Torres (Puerto Rico) both 80-72, and Salven Lagumbay (Philippines) 78-74, all for Yamanaka.
Calleros showed his gameness with body shots to the fast-footed champ in the third and fourth, but Yamanaka took the pace and accelerated his attack to hurt the game Mexican with a flurry of punches in the fatal session.
Unbeaten Venezuelan Carlos Canizales (20-0-1, 16 KOs) acquired the vacant WBA light-flyweight belt when he dropped also undefeated Reiya Konishi (15-1, 5 KOs) in round three, withstood Konishi’s furious retaliation and strong pressure, and displayed a last surge to earn a close but unanimous decision over twelve hard-round rounds.
The official scores were as follows: Stefano Caruozza (Italy) 114-113, Ferlin Marsh (New Zealand) 115-112, Stanley Christodoulou (South Africa) 116-111, all for Canizales.
Konishi maintained pressure and seemingly weakened Canizales with persistent body work at times. The crowd seemed to feel Konishi overcame his early deficit and seized a slght come-from-behind victory, but the judges felt differently.
By: Chris Henderson
