By Joe Koizumi

Japanese super-feather champ, WBO#9 Masaru Sueyoshi (17-1, 11 KOs), 130, barely kept his national belt when he came off the canvas in round three and finally halted top contender Ken Osato (13-2-1, 4 KOs), 130, because of a bad gash at 2:25 of the eighth round in a scheduled ten on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.

The lanky champ had a very narrow escape in the closing seconds of the third, when he took a solid overhand right of the challenger and unexpectedly hit the deck. But Sueyoshi came back hard to be leading on points by open scoring system—all 48-46 for Sueyoshi after the fifth.

Osato, a defensive speedster from Osaka, turned loose in the sixth, but the champ took back the initiative with his aggression in the seventh. The desperate champ, in round eight, connected with a well-timed right to the left optic badly swollen and opened a very nasty laceration over the eyebrow. The third man promptly had it examined by the ringside physician, whose advice caused the ref’s decision to halt the proceedings.

Sueyoshi had better improve his defensive skills.