By Joe Koizumi

Unbeaten bantam speedster, WBC#10 Takuma Inoue (12-0, 3 KOs), 118, scored an important victory as he defeated WBC#3 Mark John Yap (29-12, 14 KOs), 118, a Japan-based Filipino, by a unanimous decision over twelve hard-fought rounds on Tuesday in Tokyo, Japan.

It was the WBC eliminator to decide the next mandatory challenger. The official tallies were as follows: Rey Danseco (Philippines) 116-111, Yoshikazu Furuta (Japan) 117-110, and Catherine Leonard (US) 114-113—all in favor of Takuma, Naoya “Monster” Inoue’s younger brother. The referee was Bruce McTavish (New Zealand). Fast-punching Takuma, seven years his junior at 22, kept on outspeeding and outlegging the OPBF champ Yap all the way, and sent him sprawling to the deck in round five.

(More to come)