Daigo Higa Continues Chase for Second World Title; Holds to Another Draw by Seiya Tsusumi
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 28 Feb 2025
Higa (R) in action against Takeii.
Daigo Higa was among the rising stars at the start of Japan's golden era in boxing spearheaded by Naoya Inoue. In only his 13th professional boxing bout, he was already a world flyweight champion after winning all his fights by crushing knockout, including over Juan Hernandez for the WBC crown in 2017.
But since losing the WBC flyweight title to Nicaragua's Cristofer Rosales by painful knockout loss in 2019, the chase for another world belt, this time at bantamweight has proved elusive for Higa.
Last Tuesday, in the main supporting bout for Junto Nakatani's successful defense of his WBC bantamweight belt versus Mexican David Cuellar, Higa was held to a unanimous draw by defending WBO titlist Seiya Tsusumi thus frustrating his second bid in under a year. All the judges submitted an identical 114-114 card.
Last October, Higa lost by close unanimous points verdict to WBA beltholder Yoshiki Takeii in a dogfight of a main undercard of Inoue's successful super bantamweight title defense against TJ Doheny. That Takeii-Higa instantly became a candidate for the Ring Magazine's Fight of the Year award for 2024.
Higa has previously drew with Tsusumi, with one judge scoring for him only to be overruled by the even cards of the two other judges. The bout was then for the WBA Asia Pacific flyweight title.
Tsusumi went on to unseat Takuma Inoue for the WBA crown.
Higa only has three defeats and now two draws in 26 bouts with 21 wins, including 19 by knockout. His only other loss was a decision earlier to Ryosuke Nishida who is also now IBF world champion. This record suggests that Higa who is just 29 years old is still very much in the mix at 118 lbs and capable to win a world title in the division.
Even if that means going up against a third or fourth holder of the world championship after Takei and Tsusumi to achieve it.
Considering the draw result of their fight, Higa and Tsusumi are likely to have a third fight, the second for the WBA crown. That is if the WBA approves of it and not get in the way via a new mandatory challenger for Tsusumi.
With Japanese fighters holding all the belts at bantamweight and not averse to defending against fellow Japanese challengers as well as Japan promoters having a big say with the sanctioning bodies, we will likely see Higa fighting for a world title again against Tsusumi or IBF titlist Nishida.
Having said that, lanky WBC champion Junto Nakatani may prove a steeper climb for the squat but muscular Higa.
Good luck, anyway to Daigo Higa.
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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