By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Formerly training in a same high school boxing club, they now fought in quest of the legitimate Japanese 154-pound belt on Thursday in Tokyo, Japan. JBC super welterweight champ Nobuyuki Shindo (20-4-2, 8 KOs), 154, recovered from an injury, returned to ring warfare and barely kept his national title as he battled to a split draw (96-94, 95-96, 95-95) with interim titlist Akinori Watanabe (37-7-1, 31 KOs), also 154, over ten give-and-take rounds.

In a battle of southpaws, Shindo, four inches taller at 6’1”, connected with a bit more precise combinations to lead on the tallies after the fifth—identically 48-47 by all the judges—on the open scoring system. Watanabe, a rough-and-tumble hard-puncher, desperately turned loose down the stretch, but couldn’t overcome his early deficits on points. Shindo will be obliged to meet JBC mandatory challenger Hironobu Matsunaga first with the winner to face Watanabe in accordance with the decision of the JPBA (Japan Professional Boxing Association).

Veteran perennial contender Hayato Kimura (28-10, 19 KOs), 118, seized the Japanese interim bantam belt when he finally caught up with counterpunching rival Seizo Kono (19-11-1, 12 KOs), 118, with a flurry of punches, which had the referee intervene at 1:53 of the eighth round in a scheduled ten. The national champ Yuta Saito recently suffered a heavy sickness to be unable to defend his belt, and this bout for the vacant interim championship was sanctioned by the JBC. Kimura will face Saito upon his recovery.

Dethroned Japanese super-bantam champ, still rated by the IBF, Yusaku Kuga (17-3-1, 12 KOs), 122, impressively made a fine comeback by dropping former world challenger John Mark Apolinario (20-13-3, 5 KOs), 120.75, time and again en route to an overwhelming knockout at 2:22 of the fourth session in a scheduled eight.

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