By Jim Dower: Unbeaten World Boxing Council World bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka (26-0-2, 18 KOs) retained his WBC 118lb title on Friday night by stopping 31-year-old former WBA bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno (36-5-1, 12 KOs) in the 7th round at the Edion Arena in Osaka, Japan.
Yamanaka, 33, knocked the 31-year-old Moreno down four times in the fight before it was finally halted in the 7th round by referee Daniel Van de Wiele. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:09 of the 7th.
Photo credit: World Boxing Council
For Yamanaka, it was his 11th consecutive successful title defense of his WBC title, which he won back in 2012 in beating Christian Esquivel. It was the second time that Yamanaka has beaten the Panamanian Moreno. Last year, Yamanaka defeated Moreno by a 12 round split decision in September 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. The only reason a rematch was needed is because of Moreno’s #1 ranking with the WBC.
Yamanaka knocked Moreno down in round one, six and twice in the seventh. For his part, Moreno dropped Yamanaka in the 4th. The fight was very competitive until Yamanaka took over in the 6th in putting Moreno down.
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In other boxing results on the Yamanaka vs. Moreno card, former two division world champion Hozumi Hasegawa (36-5, 16 KOs) defeated WBC super bantamweight champion Hugo Ruiz (36-4, 32 KOs) by a 9th round stoppage to win his WBC 122lb title. Ruiz, 29, took a beating and quit on his stool following the 9th round. Ruiz didn’t want to continue, as he had soaked up a lot of punishment in the fight by the 35-year-old Hasegawa. Ruiz was bleeding from the mouth and looked beaten and tired.
The loss puts a short end to Ruiz’s title run as the WBC 122lb champion. He only recently won the WBC super bantamweight title last February in beating Julio Ceja by a 1st round knockout. In Ruiz’s fight before that, he had been knocked out by Ceja in the 5th round.
Hasegawa is an interesting case. From 2005 to 2009, he held the WBC World bantamweight title and looked invincible. However, he was blown out in four rounds by Fernando Montiel in April 2010 in losing his WBC bantamweight title. Hasegawa would later suffer knockout losses to Jhonny Gonzalez and Kiko Martinez. To some boxing fans, these results suffered that Hasegawa was finished as a major player in the sport. However, he’s put together three consecutive wins over Horacio Garcia, Carlos Ruiz and Hugo Ruiz.
It should be interesting to see how long Hasegawa holds onto his newly won WBC super bantamweight title. There’s a lot of talented fighters in the 122lkbs division, and it’s difficult imagining Hasegawa being able to keep his belt for long before getting beaten by the first talented contender he faces.
