By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
The curtain raiser of the quadruple world title event saw a quick but dramatic stoppage on Sunday at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. Japanese hard-puncher WBO#1 Shokichi Iwata (14-1, 11 KOs), 108, acquired the vacant WBO junior flyweight belt when he caught up with unbeaten Spaniard #2 Jairo Noriega (14-1, 3 KOs), 108, badly floored him twice and halted him at 3:00 of the third round in a scheduled twelve.
Having failed to win the same belt from Jonathan “Bomba” Gonzalez on points two years ago, Shokichi this time looked so much determined to win the belt and turned loose in round three. Though Noriega had made a good start in earlier rounds, he absorbed a vicious long right uppercut and hit the deck. The damaged Spaniard barely regained his feet, but Iwata swarmed over him and landed a solid right to the belly followed by a wicked left hook. Noriega fell prone with the referee Raul Caiz Jr. promptly calling a well-timed halt. The flattened loser stayed there for a while, which demonstrated Iwata’s lethal power punching. Shokichi, 28, became the ninth current world titleholder out of Japan.
The tallies before the trick happened: Jessie Reyes 20-18 for Iwata, Martino Redona and Waleska Roldan both 19-19 with all the judges coming from US.
Promoter: Teiken Promotions.
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