By Joe Koizumi
Photos: Naoki Fukuda

After a three-year inactivity, 37-year-old Tamao Ozawa (17-5, 6 KOs), 114, returned to action and dethroned WBO female junior bantamweight champ Miyo Yoshida (15-3, no KO), 115, by a split decision (96-94 twice for Ozawa, 93-97 for Yoshida) over ten hard-fought rounds on Monday in Tokyo, Japan. Ozawa, an unheralded underdog, stunned the crowd by upsetting the prohibitive favorite Yoshida. The challenger had the upper hand with her hand speed and aggressiveness in the first half, while the champ took time to warm up her engine and began to mix it up midway in the contest. But Yoshida, 34, couldn’t overcome her early deficits on points despite her last surge. For the newly crowned Ozawa, it was the third crack at the world belt, having lost to Su-Yun Hong in Kyoto in 2017 and to Raja Amasheh in Germany in 2018. It’s Ozawa’s night thanks to her opening attach that paid off well.

Promoter: Misako Promotions.

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