By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
It was a quadruple national title event in commemoration of the latest passing of “Champion Maker” Kenji Yonekura (who produced 45 champions on aggregate) promoted by his pupil and ex-world champ Hideyuki Ohashi (currently handling “Monster” Naoya Inoue). In the first title go on the night, unheralded JBC#1 Yuni Takada (11-8-3, 6 KOs), 105, acquired the vacant Japanese minimumweight belt by halting badly nose-bleeding JBC#2 Shuri Hasebe (9-7, 3 KOs), 105, at 2:59 of the sixth session in a scheduled ten on Tuesday at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan.
Takada, a late bloomer who had once suffered a bitter come-from-behind TKO loss by Hasebe in their first encounter exactly seven years ago (on the same April 26), demonstrated his new aggressive style, and beat him up to prompt the referee’s stoppage upon his accelerated barrage of punches in the fatal six.
Takada’s manager is former world challenger and ex-Orient 140-pound champ iron-jawed Lion Tetsuo Furuyama (38-12-4, 27 KOs), who failed to win the world belt three times from Antonio Cervantes in Panama in 1973, Perico Fernandez in Italy in 1974 and Saengsak Muangsurin in Tokyo in 1976—all on points without being stopped by the hard-punching rivals. It’s very ironic that Furuyama, 77, saw his very first champ born since he opened his gym fifty-six years ago—on the night of the champ maker Yonekura’s festival of celebrating 45 champs during 54 years of managing his gym.
Promoter: Ohashi Promotions.
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Lion Furuyama fought some real good boxers, including Bruce Curry