By Jim Dower: Unbeaten World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight champion Kazuta Ioka (9-0, 6 KO’s) made easy work of his 21-year-old challenger Yodgoen Tor Chalermchai (8-1, 4 KO’s) by a 1st round TKO last night at the Prefectural Gymnasium, in Osaka, Japan.
Iola, 22, backed Chalermchai with a series of hard shots and then knocked him down with a left hook to the head. The fight was then stopped at 1:38 of the 1st round by referee Bruce McTavish and Chalermchai was then taken out of the ring on a stretcher.
Ioka has serious power. He knocked out WBC minimumweight champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai (39-1-1, 14 KO’s) in the 5th round last year in February 2011 to capture the WBC title. Some boxing fans thought it was a fluke at the time, but after last night’s destruction of Chalermchai, it’s pretty clear that Ioka has major power. He’s now defended the title twice and looked good in both fights.
Ioka, 22, never really even gave Chalermchai chance to get started in this fight, as he immediately jumped him and starting throwing combinations. He looked like a miniature version of Gerald McClellan the way he was unloading on Chalermchai with combinations and not giving him a chance to get his own offense started. He fought him from one side of the ring to the other until cornering Chalermchai and then knocking him flat with a beautiful left hook to the head. There was no doubt that Chalermchai wasn’t going to get up from this knockdown because he just laid on his back with a look of pain on his face that never left him even when he was being taken out of the ring on a stretcher.
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