Takei-Higa Thriller Steal Show From Inoue-Doheny Snoozefest
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 04 Sep 2024
Yoshiki Takei (R) connects with a right at Daigo Higa.
As Naoya Inoue slept walk us to another predictable stoppage victory, two fellow Japanese fighters staged a barnburner of a fight that had the audience at the edge of their seats saving an otherwise night of mismatches.
Inoue defended his undisputed world super bantamweight championship by scoring a savage body assault seventh round stoppage of Australian based Irish challenger TJ Doheny in the main event of a premier boxing promotion held at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
In the companion world title bout, WBO bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei and challenger former WBC flyweight titlist Daigo Higa treated the live arena fans and outside viewers to the most intense and thrilling all-Japanese world title fight in recent memory with both fighters ending with cuts and bloodied faces.
Though Higa has just recently moved up, he used his longer experience and brawling style of fighting to unnerve the younger Takei who was just in his tenth bout as a professional. From the opening bell, Higa took the fight to Takei and bull him into the ropes where he attempted to suffocate him with volume of punches though most of his blows were either blocked or missed their target.
To Takei's credit, he kept his calm and composure as he fought back with shorter punches while trying to escape from being trapped and keep the fight in the center of the ring where his better boxing and longer reach kept Higa at bay.
However, occasionally Higa still catches Takei with his hard overhand rights which Takei takes--to the viewers admiration-- without getting groggy or on the verge of going down.
That had been the trend of the fight until in the tenth, Higa connected with a glancing blow on the back of the head that made Takei lose his balance with both hands touching the canvas. Takei protested that it was an illegal blow that made him lose his balance. But the referee still ruled it a knockdown, giving Higa a 10-8 round in a bout that was very closely fought at that point.
Takei trying to even matters up, abandoned his defensive boxing and went on attack at Higa who suddenly became gun shy and defensive up to the bell ending the round.
To everyone's surprise, Higa maintained that posture in the next round and especially in the final round, believing perhaps that he had the fight sewn up with that knockdown.
On the other hand, Takei continued with his strong finishing performance even as he found a new weapon, a jolting uppercut, that jarred Higa's head at least two times as he desperately looked to knock out or at least knock down Higa to avoid or even up the judges' scoring.
In the end, the judges gave credit to Takei's early boxing and strong finish to give him a close but unanimous decision win with two judges both giving Takei a point margin, Only Filipino judge Edward Ligas gave Takei a more comfortable card, 115-112.
A draw could have been fair but the fans in the arena seemed to support the verdict allowing Takei to keep his WBO belt for the first time.
It was a grievous miscalculation on the part of Higa and his corner. They came near to winning it but not quite close. Anyway, Higa proved to still be a dangerous fighter, a viable challenger to other fellow Japanese holding the belt at 118 lbs like perhaps Takuma Inoue (WBA) or Ryusuke Nishida (IBF).
In the supporting 12 round bouts, two promising world rated Japanese fighters Andy Horioka and Jun Sasaki gave Japan something to look forward to in the heavier weights by stopping their respective game but overmatch foreign opponents.
Horioka dispatched Venezuelan veteran Ismael Barroso in the ninth round after outclassing him from the opening bell and neutralizing any threat the aging Barroso could pose with constant movements. The fight was billed as a world junior welterweight title eliminator.
Sasaki on the other hand made no pretense of his bad intentions by blasting away at Australian Qamil Balla almost from the get go leading to a seventh round technical knockout victory. The fight was for the OPBF and Asia Pacific welterweight championship.
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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