By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Former IBF 130-pound champ Kenichi Ogawa (27-2-1-1NC, 19 KOs), 132.25, made a fine comeback as he badly decked Thailand’s Krai Settaphon (32-10, 22 KOs), ex-WBC Asia continental titlist, three times and scored an impressive stoppage at 2:39 of the fifth round in a scheduled eight on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. The muscular Ogawa forfeited his IBF belt to Joe Cordina with a single right shot in just two rounds in Cardiff, Wales last June, and underwent a surgery on the rotator cuff of right shoulder afterward, which forced him to be inactive accordingly. Ogawa wishes to regain his belt from Cordina upon his comeback road.

Having failed to win the WBO 108-pound belt from Jonathan Gonzalez via close but unanimous nod here last November, hard-punching prospect WBC#2 Shokichi Iwata (10-1, 7 KOs), 108, displayed a spectacular KO victory over Filipino Jerome Baloro (7-3, 4 KOs), 106.5, at 1:07 of the third round in a scheduled eight. Iwata caught Baloro with a vicious right to floor him, and sent him to the deck again in agony with a strong body shot.

In the main event, JBC#7 Josuke Nagata (5-0, no KO), 112, upset former world challenger JBC#1 Ryota Yamauchi (9-3, 8 KOs), 112, by a unanimous decision (all 96-94) to win the vacant Japanese national flyweight belt (renounced by Seigo Yuri Akui) over ten give-and-take rounds.

Promoter: Teiken Promotions.

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