BARCELONA LOSES TO OBA IN JAPAN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 11 Mar 2010
Former Philippine super flyweight champion and Philippine Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion Eric “The Maverick” Barcelona has lost in a ten round bout against undefeated former Japanese bantamweight champion Kohei Oba in a fight card at the International Conference Hall in Nagoya.
A veteran for his 28 years of age, southpaw Barcelona fell to 51-17-4 with 19 knockouts while the undefeated 25 year old Oba who is ranked No. 3 by the WBC improved to 27-0-1 with 11 knockouts.
All three judges scored the fight for Oba who won by margins of 97-93, 97-94 and 97-95.
Oba had previously won the Japanese bantamweight title with a unanimous ten round decision over Masayuki Mitani on February 24, 2008 and has made five successful title defenses, Oba was making his first ring appearance after relinquishing his title at the end of last year.
A report from Japan said that while Oba used his quickness to launch a solid body attack against Barcelona and caught the Filipino southpaw on occasions with his right uppercut he didn’t hurt Barcelona who is known to be a tough fighter who hasn’t lost a single bout by knockout.
Barcelona has faced some of the toughest fighters in the division including South Africa’s Simpiwe Vetyeka and countrymen Diosdadi Gabi who has returned to train at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym and is looking to make a comeback and Z “The Dream” G ores whose career was tragically ended following brain surgery last November after a smashing win over Luis Melendez of C olombia.
Barcelona was coming off a 7th round TKO win over Greg Mangan last February 2.
Nicknamed “Tensai” or “Genius” by the Japanese boxing media, Oba is regarded as one of Japan’s top prospects . One report said that newly-crowned OPBF bantamweight champion and former world flyweight champion Malcolm Tunacao was present during Oba’s post-fight interview and rematch between the two was announced.
Tunacao is the only fighter Oba failed to beat when he drew with the Filipino in his first reign as OPBF champion.
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