By Joe Koizumi

Southpaw speedster IBF#3 Reiya Abe (25-3-1, 10 KOs), 125.75, easily defeated former world champ IBF#7 Kiko Martinez (44-12-2, 31 KOs), 125.25, by winning a unanimous decision (119-109 twice,117-111) over twelve monotonous rounds on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. Abe, ex-Japanese champ, had the upper hand almost all the way against the slower and sluggish Spaniard, who looked to fail to bring his fighting spirit and zip from Spain. He was just a shell of the old Kiko, who previously halted our hero Hozumi Hasegawa here in 2014. Kiko kept stalking the Japanese footworker only to absorb his southpaw counters to have the nose bridge bleeding from the fifth on. Abe wasn’t as sharp as usual, but was an obvious winner since Kiko was least aggressive. The ref was Albert Earl Brown.

Promoter: Teiken Promotions.