By Joe Koizumi
Photos: Boxing Beat

It’s a homecoming show of Shigeoka brothers. The prodigies out of Kumamoto displayed fine stoppages before the hometown crowd. Unbeaten elder brother Yudai Shigeoka (5-0, 3 KOs), 105, successfully retained his WBO Asia Pacific 105-pound belt when he swarmed over Filipino Cris Ganoza (19-4, 9 KOs), 103.75, from the outset and sunk him with a vicious body shot at 0:59 of the third session in a scheduled twelve in the main event on Wednesday in Kumamoto, Japan. This result was registered as TKO by the JBC as the ref didn’t complete the count at the loser’s bad visit to the deck. Yudai, 25, is already WBC#6 and WBO#9 despite his short pro career (amateur mark 81-10).

Also unbeaten younger brother Ginjiro Shigeoka (8-0, 6 KOs), 105, battered top contender Naoya Haruguchi (18-13, 7 KOs), 105, into submission at 1:48 of the fourth round to keep his national minimumweight belt in a scheduled ten. WBC#1, WBA#5, IBF#5, WBO#3 Ginjiro (who turned professional earlier than Yudai), 22, scored an impressive amateur ledger 56-1 with his sole setback to his brother Yudai (in an amateur final contest, his cornerman threw in the towel to avert the brothers exchange gloves, so Ginjiro was actually unbeaten when amateur).

Promoter: Watanabe Promotions.