OPBF OFFICIAL PLEASED THAT FILIPINO BOXERS ARE BREAKING JAPAN?S DOMINATION
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 20 Jun 2010
The International Coordinator of the Oriental Boxing Federation and the Japan Boxing Commission says he is pleased at the recent successes of Filipino fighters in OPBF title fights in Japan.
Koji Ishizuka told us ?I am grateful seeing Filipino boxers? recent victories in OPBF title fights as they are breaking the domination of the OPBF titles by the Japanese.?
Ishizuka said he believes that ?this is a good change for the improvement of boxing in the OPBF zone as well as in Japan.?
There are three current OPBF champions from the Philippines led by flyweight Rocky Fuentes, bantamweight Malcolm Tunacao and lightweight Randy Suico.
At the same time Ishizuka clarified that the secretary general of both the OPBF and the JBC is Tsuyoshi Yasukochi.
In response to our query as to why all three judges in the recent OPBF female flyweight title fight between champion Asakmi Shikasho and the Philippines Marnelle Verano were Japanese.
Ishizuka clarified that while in the men?s OPBF title fights the rules call for one judge each from the champion?s and challenger?s countries and a third scoring referee from a neutral country, the rules were different for female fights since it was at an early stage and it is ?difficult to promote if we require the promoters to meet the same conditions as OPBF male title fights.
The Japanese girl won a fairly close bout over the No. 5 ranked Verano showing good footwork although lacking her normal aggressive style.
Shikasho won on the scorecards of Kodai Kumasaki and Kazuo Abe 96-94 and by a closer 96-95 margin on the scorecard of Yuji Fukuchi.
Top photo: Rocky Fuentes (R) won the OPBF title against Okubo.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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