By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Rough-and-tumble southpaw hard-puncher Akinori Watanabe (39-7-1, 33 KOs), 154, easily kept his newly acquired OPBF super welterweight belt when he exploded a single right uppercut to the midsection and sank #8 Sitthidet Banti (12-6, 6 KOs), 153.25, in agony at 1:46 of the second round in a scheduled twelve on Monday in Tokyo, Japan.

Having dethroned Korean Jung-Kyoung Lee via a come-from-behind tenth-round stoppage in Korea last August, Watanabe, 34, overwhelmed the physically inferior challenger, 28, from the outset and dropped him for the count in the fatal second session.

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