By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Do you remember formerly three-time world/WBA 154-pound champ Koichi Wajima? Wajima (31-6-1, 25 KOs) was called “Man of Fire” due to his furious aggression despite a rather small frame in the 1970s. Koichi dethroned Italian Carmelo Bossi with his unorthodox performance in 1971, regained his belt from his conqueror Oscar “Shotgun” Alvarado in 1974 and recaptured it again from Korean Jae-Do Yuh in 1976.

Now a club owner/manager, Wajima, now 75, might dig up a golden nugget in his pupil WBO #2 Hiroaki Teshigawara (19-2-2, 12 KOs), 122, who successfully kept his newly acquired OPBF 122-pound belt when he battered bloodied compatriot Yuki Iriguchi (9-3-1, 4 KOs), 122, en route to a well-received stoppage at 1:56 of the eighth round on Thursday (February 14) in Tokyo, Japan.

Much sharper and speedier than usual, Hiroaki whipped the game challenger with a flurry of punches from all angles. Iriguchi, gallant but gory, withstood his bad nose-bleeding and kept on responding to the champ’s solid combos with jabs, one-twos and left hooks. But Teshigawara, in the fatal eighth, accelerated his attack to prompt the ref Fukuchi’s well-time halt to save Iriguchi from further punishment.

In a companion title bout, 38-year-old veteran JBC#1 Kenichi Horikawa (39-15-1, 12 KOs), 107.75, acquired the vacant Japanese light-flyweight belt (vacated by world rated Tetsuya Hisada) as he was awarded a TKO victory over JBC#2 Satoru Todaka (9-3-4, 3 KOs), 108, with the loser’s surrender on the stool after the eighth in a scheduled ten. Having steadily piled up points, Horikawa turned loose in the eighth, battering the loser with a barrage of punches to have him a narrow escape.

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