By Joe Koizumi

Hard-punching southpaw, former Japanese 115-pound champ Kenta Nakagawa (16-3-1, 11 KOs), 115, decked his third victory since his title forfeiture to his ex-high school classmate Ryuichi Funai (now world rated by all the organizations) in March of the previous year, as he scored a couple of knockdowns and pounded out a shutout decision (all 80-69) over Kittipong Jareonroy (reportedly 10-4, 3 KOs), 113.75, over eight rounds on Friday in Tokyo, Japan.

When Nakagawa, an upright southpaw, floored the Thailander at first with a straight left to the liver, and again with a flurry of punches in the third, it looked a matter of time for the audience to watch a short affair soon. The hard-hitting Japanese attempted to finish him with solid combinations, but Kittipong, from the fourth on, inexplicably became a different boxer—very tough and durable—from what he was in the first three sessions.

The Thailander shook off Nakagawa’s strong shots and amazingly showed his rough, if not effective, retaliations to refuse to go down again. As the contest was over, the victor looked more tired because of his repeated attempts to finish him and the Thai loser more victorious because of his lasting the distance, raising his hands. It’s a very bizarre scene.

In the main event, JBC#3 super-light Daishi Nagata (10-1-1, 4 KOs), 139.75, a game and tricky southpaw, was awarded a technical decision win (50-42, 50-43, 50-45) over #7 Takashi Inagaki (20-16-2, 9 KOs), 140, a physically taller and bigger puncher, due to Nagata’s bad bleeding caused by Inagaki’s headbutt at 1:01 of the fifth round in a scheduled eight.

The ref Katsuragi ordered a penalization of a point for the onrushing Inagaki’s butts twice—in the second and fifth—and finally called a halt to take a technical decision. Inagaki was courageous, but it wasn’t good to keep boring in from the head despite the third man’s repeated warnings.