By Francisco Chantengo: Making his sixth defense of his WBC bantamweight title, champion Hozumi Hasegawa (24-2, 8 KOs) made easy work of his challenger Cristian Faccio (15-3, 10 KOs), stopping him in the 2nd round of a scheduled 12-round title bout on Wednesday night at the Nihon Budokan, in Tokyo, Japan. Hasegawa, 27, was never troubled by the #9th ranked WBC bantamweight challenger Facio, whom he dropped twice in the second round with big left hands. On the second knockdown, the referee Toby Gibson suddenly called a halt to the bout at 2:18 of the 2nd round.
It appeared, however, that Faccio was okay, could still fight and was mostly knocked down because Hasegawa had chased Faccio around the ring and tagged him with a combination while having a running start. Nevertheless, Faccio would have likely been stopped anyway, because the first knockdown, a huge left hand blast from Hasegawa, was a huge shot that dropped Faccio on the seat of his pants at the very start of the round. From there, it was all Hasegawa as he teed-off on Faccio, hitting him with tremendous left hands as he attempted to retreat around the ring and buy some time.
Hasegawa looked especially sharp in the first round as he moved in and out, hitting Faccio with stinging left leads and right hooks to the head. Even then, it looked like a serious mismatch, with Faccio having major problems trying to match up with the power and speed of Hasegawa. Faccio attempted to keep Hasegawa at bay, mostly throwing right hands to the body and mixing in jabs occasionally. Near the close of the round, Hasegawa began landing huge left hands that snapped the head back of Faccio.
Each time that Hasegawa would land a shot, the Japanese crowd would go wild screaming as if he was taking Faccio’s head off. This seemed to have an unnerving effect on the 25 year-old Faccio, who looked terrified as if he wasn’t ready for the daunting task of fighting Hasegawa. For his part, Hasegawa looked extraordinarily skillful as he moved around the ring with ease, stopping every once in a while to land a big left to the head of Faccio.
Faccio, a fighter known for his excellent power, started off strong in the 2nd round as he landed powerful right hands and left hooks to the head of Hasegawa. However, Hasegawa began answering back with lead left hands and right hooks. Several punches later, Hasegawa caught Faccio with a devastating left hand to the head sending him crashing to the canvas on his backside. The punch was a cracking left hand that seemed to have been snapped off, almost like a jab rather than a traditional power punch. All the same, the shot was huge and immediately sent Faccio falling to the canvas.
After Faccio got up, Hasegawa charged after him and began punishing him with combinations to the head. Faccio attempted to flee and moved quickly to the other side of the ring to get away from Hasegawa. However, Hasegawa wasn’t going to be put off and immediately chased him down while throwing punches in front of his as he ran after Faccio. Once he caught up with him, it was like a freight train running over a deep on the track. Faccio, standing flat-footed, was instantly sent to the canvas as Hasegawa came charging into him with both fists pumping back and forth in front of him like working pistons.
At that point, the referee chose to move in and halt the bout rather than giving Faccio a count. To me, it didn’t seem like a clear knockdown because Hasegawa had simply run him over, but like I said, it doesn’t matter much. Hasegawa would have flattened Faccio later on in the round, or perhaps the next. Faccio’s chin is lacking in a big way, from what I saw of him. Indeed, he’s been knocked down in three out of his last five fights, which seems to indicate that his chin is less than sturdy.
All in all, it was a very impressive performance from Hasegawa, who showed that he’s perhaps the best fighter in the bantamweight division. He looks a lot better than the other champions, Gerry Penalosa, Anselmo Moreno and Joseph Agbeko. I think this division is screaming out for unification, because most of these champions aren’t what I consider to be true champions.