Casimero Makes Waves, Finally; Paras Fails to Repeat Vs Kyugochi
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 13 Oct 2024
Johnriel Casimero finally made waves in his second fight in Japan by pounding out a first round TKO over American Saul Sanchez in a scheduled 10 round super bantamweight bout at the Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama.
Casimero took less than a minute in turning his husky opponent known as The Beast into prey and the succeeding less than two minutes into a one sided slaughter forcing the referee to stop the fight to save Sanchez from further damage.
Johnriel heavily dropped Sanchez on his back with a ponderous left hook topping his two fisted assault in the opening minute of the bout. When the American rose unsteadily on both legs after taking the mandatory eight count, Casimero continued with his two fisted assault forcing Sanchez to clinch for dear life.
The ending came after Casimero trapped Sanchez in the ropes and rained him with hard punches prompting the referee to come to the American's succor.
It was reportedly the last of Casimero's four fight deal under the Treasure Boxing Promotion of ex world champion Masayuki Ito. His first ended also in first round TKO over Ryu Akaho in South Korea, his second in a unanimous decision over Filippus Nghitumbwa in Manila and his previous first fight in Japan being declared a first round technical draw with Yukinori Oguni on account of bloody cut suffered by Oguni.
The impressive victory over Sanchez could give Casimero a contract extension with TBP.
Casimero has remained unbeaten since an upset points loss to fellow Pinoy Jonas Sultan in 2017. His record now stands at 34 wins, including 23 by KO, 4 defeats and 1 draw.
Sanchez suffered his first KO defeat in 4 losses with 21 wins, 13 by KO.
Incidentally, Nghitumbwa and Oguni also figured in the undercard of the Casimero-Sanchez bout with the African visitor scoring a first round TKO.
The TKO win by Nghitumbwa in Japan over Oguni, an ex world titlist, has the effect of enhancing further the image of Casimero who had easily defeated the Namibian in wresting his WBO Global super bantamweight championship in Manila last year.
It could have been a sweep by the visitors of the principal bouts but Filipino Vince Paras failed to repeat over ex world light flyweight titlist Hiroto Kyugochi, dropping a 10 round majority decision.
Paras despite landing more punches, failed to impress two of the three judges who scored the bout, 96-94 both in favor of Kyugochi. The third judge turned in an even 94-94 card.
In 2018, Kyugochi had outpointed Paras in a world minimumweight title defense in Tokyo.
But last May, Paras evened matters up by scoring a unanimous decision over Kyugochi in Pusan, South Korea setting up this rubber match, the winner of which could be in line for a possible world title crack next year.
Paras' record fell to 21-3 with 13 KO wins. Kyugochi improves to 19-2 also with 13 KO wins, his only other loss coming at the hands of countryman Kenshiro Teraji in their WBC-WBA light flyweight unification in 2022.
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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