By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
IBF #3/WBO #7/WBA #8 super feather Japanese Kenichi Ogawa (25-1-1-1NC, 18 KOs), 129.75, exchanged knockdowns with IBF#7 Kazuhiro Nishitani (21-5-1, 12 KOs), 129.25, and pounded out a unanimous decision (all 97-91) over ten give-and-take rounds on Friday in Tokyo, Japan.
Our government still hasn’t approved of any foreign boxers entering Japan to work professionally, which consequently produced some good encounters of our world rated compatriots. Our afficionados welcome such civil wars as Ogawa-Nishitani and Masayuki Ito-Hironori Mishiro confrontations.
Ogawa, a muscular prefight favorite, once acquired the vacant IBF 130-pound belt by beating Tevin Farmer by a split nod in Las Vegas in 2017, but he tested positive in a doping test afterward and his short-lived coronation was eventually denied into a no contest. Ogawa surprisingly hit the deck with Nishitani’s switch-hitting southpaw left in the third, but his right made Nishitani go down on his knee in the next session. Kenichi, from the fifth on, regained his rhythm and took back the initiative, steadily piling up points despite Kazuhiro’s occasional retaliation. It was a competitive fight, as expected.
Attendance: 454 (due to the JBC’s regulation at the Korakuen Hall).
Promoter: Teiken Promotions.
–
