World Boxing Association minimumweight champion Yutaka Niida (22-1-3, 8 KOs) won an impressive 12-round unanimous decision over old nemesis Eriberto “Yukka” Gejon (23-2-1, 14 KOs) on Saturday night in Tokyo, Japan. The victory was the sixth defense of Niida’s WBA title. More importantly, it kept him going forward towards a future showdown with one of the other three minimum champions Eagle Kyowa, Ivan Calderon and Florante Condes.

In the opening stanza, Gejon pressed forward initiating the action and landing well with his accurate right hand shots. His fighting style resembled a younger Wladimir Klitschko, in some ways, particularly the use of right hands as a spearing weapon to first stun and then stop his opponents. Against Niida, Gejon hurt him early in the fourth round with a crushing right hand. However, Niida backed off and went into the survival mode, grabbing Gejon and clinching for dear life. By the end of the round, Niida’s head had cleared, allowing him to finish the round on the attack.

In the next eight rounds, the fight was all Niida’s, as he opened up with lightning fast combination punching in which almost every punch thrown was a multiple hook. Gejon found himself on the receiving end of 4-5 punch combinations for the rest of the bout, and he wal almost defenseless against them. Really, once Niida stepped up his efforts in the fifth round, he almost like a completely different fighter compared to the one in the previous four rounds.

There was no stopping him, and the fight was no longer competitive. Though none of Niida’s shots were particularly powerful, the overall effect of being hit with so many punches in such a short span of time, made Niida just as dangerous than he would be if he had possessed knockout power. The final judge’s scores were 117-111, 117-112 and 117-112, giving the decision to Niida.

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