By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Busy-punching Miyo Yoshida (14-1, no KO), 114.75, barely kept her WBO female 115-pound belt by winning a unanimous but unimpressive decision (97-92, 99-91, 98-90) over Chinese challenger Li-Ping Shi (5-3, 2 KOs), 112.35, over ten on Tuesday in Tokyo, Japan.

They kept holding and clinching all the way in the first half, and Yoshida was more aggressive, if not effective, in the second half.

The champ Yoshida, 31, is well-known as a single mother, always accompanying her four-year-old daughter Miina anywhere—at the press conference and weigh-in. Miina kept shouting during the fight, “Body, body, one-two!” Yoshida couldn’t properly follow her daughter’s instructions since the much taller Chinese challenger, ten years younger at 21, too often grabbed her whenever the mother kept boring in.

As Yoshida repented of her unsatisfactory performance, it wasn’t a fight at all to raise the popularity of female boxing here in Japan.

–