Kazuto Ioka earned a 12-round unanimous decision over Jeyvier Cintron, while Kosei Tanaka knocked out Wulan Tuolehazi inside three rounds.
A pair of Japanese titleholders successfully defended their belts Tuesday night in Tokyo.
Four-division titleholder Kazuto Ioka dominated Puerto Rico’s Jeyvier Cintron in a junior bantamweight title bout to win by unanimous decision win at Ota-City General Gymnasium. On the undercard, Ioka’s countryman Kosei Tanaka retained his flyweight title by knockout.
Ioka’s was making the first defense of his WBO belt, which he took from Aston Palicte in June. Two judges scored it 116-112, while another had it 115-113, all in favor of Ioka, who has fought on New Year’s Eve every year – except 2017 – since 2011.
“I had hoped to demonstrate how strong a champion can be and how hard a world title fight can be,” an emotional Ioka said afterward.
He continued, “There was some pressure, because this was my first fight since my son was born.”
The southpaw Cintron (11-1, 5 knockouts) used his superior height and reach to keep Ioka at bay with his jab early in the fight. But Ioka (25-2, 14 KOs) soon turned it up a notch, getting on the inside and landing pinpoint body punches.
Ioka ramped up the pace in the mid-to-late rounds, including an onslaught of combinations to the body in Round 10. Cintron simply had no answer, although he was able to outbox Ioka in the final two rounds.
Earlier, Tanaka made short work of Chinese flyweight Wulan Tuolehazi, stopping him in three rounds. Tanaka was making the third defense of his WBO title, which he won last year.
Tanaka (15-0, 9 KOs) landed a double uppercut that sent Tuolehazi (13-4-1, 6 KOs) crashing to the canvas. Referee Jose Rivera waved the fight off at 2-29 of Round 3.
“I was able to land that uppercut after a feint to the body,” Tanaka said.
