By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
Southpaw footworker Yoshiki Takei (10-0, 8 KOs), 117.75, very barely kept his WBO bantamweight belt as he was awarded a hairline unanimous decision (114-113 twice, 115-112) over ex-WBC flyweight champ Daigo Higa (21-3-1, 19 KOs), 117.75, over twelve sizzling rounds on Tuesday in Tokyo, Japan. Takei kept circling to counter with uppercuts to the shorter but more powerful challenger. The tide turned busily as Takei and Higa scored with solid shots each other. The eleventh round saw Higa connected with a roundhouse shot at the neck of Takei, who went down to take the count. Takei, however, furiously went forward to overcome his deficit on point in the final session, when Higa didn’t show any of his aggressiveness only to try to keep his accumulation of points. It turned out to be a serious mistake for Higa. Though the judges eventually favored the defending champ, it wasn’t a good performance for Takei.
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I thought that this would be the fight of the night, but it wasn’t. Higa has a right uppercut that can be fired from any angle, but I barely saw it. Takei did enough to win, but the knockdown made the fight close. The 12th round could have been scored 10-8 since Takei beat Higa from pillar to post. Even though it wasn’t the most entertaining, I would like to see them run this back.
Thought 114-114 would have been fair-thought the knockdown round should have only been 10-9 because knockdown was questionable and he lost the rest of the round.