LOPEZ WATCHES SATO WIN WBC TITLE; REMINDS WBC HE?S NEXT IN LINE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 28 Mar 2012
World Boxing Council super flyweight silver champion Sylvester Lopez was at ringside together with his promoter Gabriel ?Bebot? Elorde Jr to watch Japan?s Yota Sato win the world title by a unanimous twelve round decision over Thai champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai in Tokyo.
Lopez earned a mandatory crack at the winner of the title fight between Rungvisai and Sato when he won the WBC silver title with a sensational 8th round TKO over heavily favored Oscar Ibarra in Mexico which also served as a title eliminator last September 24.
Promoter ?Bebot? Elorde wasted no time in informing WBC president that he and Lopez watched what Elorde described as ?a very convincing win by a one-sided unanimous decision by Sato.? At the same time Elorde reminded Sulaiman that in the last WBC Convention in Las Vegas the board of governors voted that the winner of the Suriyan vs Sato title fight would defend the title against mandatory challenger Lopez which was approved by president Sulaiman himself.
Elorde told Sulaiman he is hoping that ?The Sato camp be given notice that the next defense will be against mandatory challenger Sylvester Lopez after three months.?
Sato dropped Suriyan Sor Rungvisai twice in the third round but according to the WBC report but the ?Thai warrior
fought back with the heart of a lion and won three of the last four rounds.?
Judges Marty Sammon of California and and Jae Bong Kim of Korea scored the fight in favor of the Japanese challenger 114-112 while Rey Danseco of the Philippines had Sato nthe winner by a much wider 116-110 margin.
With the win Sato improved his record to 24-2-1 with 12 knockouts while Rungvisai dropped to 20-5-1 with 7 knockouts. The 27 year old Sato enjoyed a 4 ? inch height advantage over Rungvisai but will not enjoy a similar advantage over Lopez who stands around 5 6 ? inches.
The 23 year old Rungvisai won the title last August when he outpointed Mexico?s lanky Tomas Rojas and then successfully defended the green and gold belt against Japan?s Nobuo Nashiro.
Sato who won the Japanese super flyweight title in September 2010 with a victory over Daigo Nakahiro was figuring in his first world title fight.
Sato successfully defended his Japanese national title against Yuki Fukumoto over whom he scored a 7th round TKO as well as Kenji Oba who he knocked out in the 4th round and Yoshihito Ishizaki over whom he won a ten round decision.
Lopez also proved his punching power with a 4th round TKO over Yuki Fukumoto on March 10 this year, dropping the hapless Japanese once in round three and once more in round four before referee Silvestre Abainza called at halt at 0:19 seconds of the round.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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