By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Unbeaten prospect, OPBF 130-pound champ Hironori Mishiro (8-0-1, 3 KOs), 129.75, successfully kept his OPBF super-featherweight belt as he kept effectively jabbing all night, utilized a three-punch combo to weaken highly regarded ex-OPBF 126-pound ruler Ryo Takenaka (18-6-1, 11 KOs), 130, and finally sank him with a flurry of punches to score a knockout at 1:56 of the eighth round in a scheduled competitive twelve on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.

In the main event Mishiro, formerly an amateur Paul Pender stylist, showed his progress in offence and defense, and battered Takenaka, ten years his senior at 34, from pillar to post, badly dropping to the deck. His corner tossed in the towel to have it registered as knockout, since the JBC rules that a towel-tossing during the referee’s counting have it a KOAA loss, not a TKO. Having scored his third defense, Mishiro seems to have a bright future with his good height, tight defense and accurate sharpshooting.

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