By Joe Koizumi
Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Japan’s super-lightweight champ Daishi Nagata (15-2-2, 6 KOs), 140, barely kept his national belt when he was held to a technical decision draw (67-67 twice, 67-66 for Nagata) with former world challenger Akihiro Kondo (32-9-2, 18 KOs), 140, at 1:14 of the seventh round in a scheduled ten on Thursday in Tokyo, Japan.

Making his first defense since dethroning The Monster Inoue’s cousin Koki Inoue via TKO route last July, Nagata had an upper hand in earlier rounds with the open interim scores of

49-46, 48-47 twice after the fifth. Kondo, who lost to Sergey Lipinets on points in quest of the vacant IBF belt in Brooklyn NY in 2017, fought back hard and eventually overcame the deficits on points when it was abruptly stopped because of the champ’s nasty laceration caused by an accidental butt midway in round seven. Nagata’s gash was so deep that he would become unavailable for months.

Promoter: Misako Promotions.

Attendance: 655 (with the JBC’s regulation at the Korakuen Hall).

Remarks: We must distinguish a technical draw (a draw without taking a technical decision in an early round) from a technical decision draw that is a technical decision and the verdict results in a draw (unanimous draw, majority draw or split draw). This case was the latter.

_