All Japanese Fight for Vacant WBO Fly Title Looms as Ryota Yamauchi Wins Int'l Belt
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 24 Aug 2020
Yamauchi.
As earlier reported, top ranking Filipino Giemel Magramo is in danger of missing out on the opportunity to fight for the vacant WBO flyweight championship with his continuous inability to gain entry to Japan to firm up a final date for his now indefinitely suspended title bout versus Junto Nakatani.
This possibility and a case for an all Japanese fight for the said title have been bolstered as once-beaten ex-amateur prospect WBA #3 Ryota Yamauchi (8-1, 6 KOs), 112, impressively acquired the vacant WBO Asia Pacific flyweight belt over Saturo Todaka recently in Tokyo.
The win meant that Yamauchi will be included by the WBO in its next world ranking of minimumweight contenders giving him the opportunity to vie for the vacant title against Nakatani.
Yamauchi decked Satoru Todaka (10-4-4, 4 KOs), 111.75, with a vicious right uppercut in the third round and the latter surrendered on the stool after the third last Wednesday in Korakuen Hall Tokyo, Japan.
Yamauchi failed in his bid to win the WBA international flyweight belt, losing a hard-fought unanimous nod to China's Wulan Touhelazi after each hitting the canvas in Shanghai, March of the previous year.
Toulehazi though lost in his own bid for the WBO flyweight crown then held by Kosei Tanaka who knocked him out last December in Japan. Tanaka later vacated the WBO title to go after the WBO super flyweight belt currently held by Kazuto Ioka.
Yamauchi, a fast and aggressive punching fighter bounced back by defeating then world-rated Filipino Alphoe Dagayloan by a majority decision in August 2019. Then he exacted a measure of revenge by knocking out Chinese fighter MJ Bo last February.
Yamauchi, 25, traded punches with the veteran Todaka from the opening ball and exploded a well-timed uppercut in the fatal third.
"Yamauchi," a fast willing mixer, said, “This belt is heavy.”
"But he will have to look forward to acquiring a heavier belt in the future," famed veteran Japanese sports writer Joe Koizumi reported, hinting of a Yamauchi-Nakatani fight for the vacant WBO world title.
Magramo 24-1, 20 KOs, and Nakatani 20-0, 15 KOs last fought respectively in September and October 2019 and their continuous inactivity is a concern for their handlers.
With cases of Covid infection rising in Japan forcing authorities to continue ban foreign visitors, organizers may be tempted to hold an all Japanese fight for the vacant WBO flyweight title possibly in companion to the Tanaka-Ioka WBO super flyweight title bout later this year.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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