Moses Defeats Kobori, Wins WBA lightweight title

By Boxing News - 01/06/2009 - Comments

kabori34433By Jason Kim: In an impressive display of speed, power and boxing ability, unbeaten lightweight Paulus Moses (24-0, 17 KOs) defeated champion Yusuke Kobori (23-3-1, 12 KOs) to win the WBA lightweight title on Saturday night at the Pacifico, in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 119-109 and 115-113. Nicknamed “The Hitman,” Moses, 30, from Okapya, Namibia, overcame a slow start in the first half of the fight to take the attack to the slower Kobori, wearing him down with blazing fast combinations and a constant jab to the head.

By the 6th round, Moses’ fast combinations were starting to have an effect on Kobori, causing him to throw far less punches and think twice about coming forward and trying to mix it up with Moses. From rounds one through five, Kobori, 27, had controlled the fight, using hard right hands to control the action.

Moses was still landing a lot of punches, even then, but Kobori was tagging him with monstrous shots and giving Moses a lot of problems with his power shots.

In the 1st round, Kobori, who had defeated Jose Alfaro by a 3rd round TKO to win the WBA lightweight title in May, came out fast, pressuring Moses and landing a lot of hard right hands. Moses, for his part, was throwing constant jabs and trying to keep the fight in the center of the ring.

It worked at times but Kobori kept pushing ahead, cutting off real estate on Moses and landing big shots. Early in the 2nd round, Kobori hurt Moses with a big left hand to the head. Moses, however, fought back hard after being hurt as both fighters stood close trading shots against the ropes.

With his back to the ropes, Moses wasn’t able to fight nearly as effectively as he did at the center of the ring and he ended up getting hit often when he was in that position.

In the 3rd round, Moses continue to land a lot of jabs, throwing them one after another. However, Kobori periodically caught up to him to land big power shots to the head and land short flurries. When both were trading, it more often than not favored the more powerful Kobori who got the better of the slender but fast Moses.

In the 4th round, Kobori landed some huge left hands, which instead of hurting Moses, caused him to fight back hard and throw tons of punches that caught Kobori but had no effect on him.

The 5th round was close, with Kobori appearing to win it narrowly with his power right hands. However, Moses was landing more and more at this point in the fight, and Kobori for whatever reason, was slowing down, looking both cautious and a little bit tired.

Moses seemed to be just warming up at this point. Using a lot of 1-2 combinations, Moses dominated the 6th round, pasting Kobori over and over again with predictable combinations to the head. Kobori fought well in the last minute of the round, forcing Moses up against the ropes where he landed. However, Kobori was now missing many of his shots and looked a little ragged.

In the 7th and 8th rounds, Moses now began to punish Kobori with shots, hitting him with ease and not having to face much return fire from him. Like in the 6th, Kobori fought well in the last part of the round, giving Moses some problems, but continued to miss often with his wild shots. It wasn’t nearly enough for Kobori to win either of the rounds.

Kobori fought well in the 9th, looking as good as he had earlier in the fight, and hitting Moses with some big right hands. The key here was that Kobori stayed on top of Moses and forced him to fight off the ropes where he was largely ineffective due to his inability to use his longer reach.

However, this was for all practical purposes Kobori’s last good rounds, as Moses went into overdrive after this round.

In rounds ten through twelve, Moses teed off on a tired and beaten looking Kobori, hitting him at will with jabs and fast combinations. The speed difference between the two fighters, quite significant early in the fight, was now even more telling as Moses continually blasted Kobori with fast shots and was too quick for him even when Kobori was in close range.

By the 11th, Kobori’s face was starting to swell up and he looked shell shocked and slightly groggy from all the jabs he had been hit with in the fight. In the 12th, Moses ripped into Kobori with combinations and dominated the round. Kobori tried for a knockout, but missed often with his shots.