Junior lightweight Takashi Uchiyama retained his world title for the ninth time as he forced Israel Perez to quit on his stool after the ninth round of a hard-fought yet one-sided fight on Wednesday at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Uchiyama's hometown.
The fight headlined a card featuring three world title bouts and was one of eight world title fights spread out over three cards in Japan in the past two days, where major boxing events over the New Year's holiday have become something of a tradition in recent years. A card in Osaka, Japan, featured two world title fights Wednesday, and there was another one in Tokyo on Tuesday that included three others.
Uchiyama was in control throughout the bout, although the free-swinging Perez was aggressive and landed some solid punches. But Uchiyama was effective with his jab, cut Perez over the right eye and slowed him down with a strong body attack.
By the ninth round, Perez (27-3-1, 16 KOs), 35, of Argentina, was fading. Uchiyama staggered him with a right hand early in the round and was teeing off on him with a barrage of punches over the final few seconds of the round as Perez covered up near the ropes. After the round, Perez, who was fighting in his first world title bout, retired on his stool.
At the time of the stoppage, Uchiyama held a commanding lead on two scorecards, 90-78 and 88-82, although the third judge surprisingly had the fight 85-85.
The 35-year-old Uchiyama (22-0-1, 18 KOs), who has held his world title since 2010 and is widely regarded as the No. 1 fighter at 130 pounds, was fighting for the first since he retained the belt by unanimous decision against Daiki Kaneko last New Year's Eve at the same venue. He has made successful title defenses against such notable opponents as Takashi Miura, who later won another version of the junior lightweight title, Jorge Solis, Michael Farenas and Bryan Vasquez, who was undefeated at the time.
Kono retains title in draw
Junior bantamweight beltholder Kohei Kono (30-8-1, 13 KOs), 34, of Tokyo, hung onto his 115-pound world title in a split draw against 23-year-old journeyman Norberto Jimenez (20-8-4, 10 KOs), of the Dominican Republic, who was fighting outside of his country for the first time. Gonzalez, facing his first opponent of note, cost himself the fight when he repeatedly hit Kono below the belt, which promoted referee Rafael Ramos to take away what proved to be a critical point in the sixth round.
One judge scored the bout 116-111 in favor of the aggressive Kono, one judge had it 115-112 for the counter-punching Jimenez and the third had it 114-114, allowing Kono to retain the belt the first time. Kono won the vacant title by eighth-round knockout of Thailand's Denkaosan Kaovichit on March 26 in Tokyo.
In another world title bout on the card, Tokyo's Ryoichi Taguchi knocked down Alberto Rossel in the eighth and ninth rounds en route to a unanimous decision victory as he claimed a junior flyweight belt.
The judges scored the fight 117-109, 116-110 and 116-111 for Taguchi (21-2-1, 8 KOs), 28, the former Japanese national champion.
The 5-foot-6 Taguchi, who enjoyed a 5-inch height advantage, dropped Rossel (32-9-, 13 KOs), 39, of Peru, with body shots. Rossel, who had held the interim 108-pound belt and defended it four times, was making his first defense since being elevated to a full titleholder earlier in 2014.