By Jason Kim: Making his fourth defense of his World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight title, champion Daisuke Naito (34-2-3, 22 KOs) turned back challenger Shingo Yamaguchi (23-6-2, 9 KOs), stopping him in the 11th round on Tuesday night at the Kokugikan, in Tokyo, Japan. Naito, 34, hurt Yamaguchi with a left-right combination in the 11th round, and then landed a flurry of shots ending with referee Yuji Fukuchi stepping in and halting the bout at 1:11 of the round.
Yamaguchi, 29, was still firing back at the time of the stoppage, but he was clearly hurt having been staggered twice by big right hands from Naito and barely able to stand at the time of the stoppage.
Much of the action was toe-to-toe, as both fighters traded shots in each round, but Naito, the better fighters offensively, had too high of a work rate for Yamaguchi to stay up with for long. For the most part, Yamaguchi, ranked #15 in the WBC, seemed confused by Naito’s unorthodox style of fighting, in which he threw constant punches from a variety of punching angles.
Much of the time, Naito would get little on his punches due to his weird positions when throwing punches, but he was just as quick to start throwing traditional power shots when he wanted to, and at times like this, he did significant damage in the rounds.
He fought both on the outside and inside, comfortable with each and making it hard for Yamaguchi to predict where he would be next. Naito also used a lot of fakes, trying to get a feel for what Yamaguchi would do.
Naito came boring in on Yamaguchi in the 1st round, crouching low and throwing powerful rights. Yamaguchi responded with a lot of jabs and caught Naito often while he was coming at him. It was made easier for Yamaguchi, because Naito often had both hands down by his sides and not covering his face as he came forward.
In the 2nd round, Yamaguchi fought remarkably well, landing hard right hands and picking Naito off as he would wade forward. Naito came on in the last minute of the round, throwing hard power shots but it wasn’t quite enough to make up for the good work that Yamaguchi had done in the first two minutes of the round.
Naito took command of the bout in the 3rd and 4th rounds, firing off hard right hands and keeping on top of Yamaguchi at all time, not letting him rest for an instant. Naito started really getting into the fight in the 4th, gritting his teeth on his mouth guard, crouching down and firing one big shot after another, nailing Yamaguchi often.
Though Yamaguchi fought well in the last minute of the round, he had taken a lot of punishment in the opening two minutes and clearly lost the round. Near the end of the round, both fighters clashed heads, the first of which would be many more head butts between the two fighters.
Yamaguchi started off well in the opening moments of the 5th, landing jabs and right hands to the head of Naito. However, he couldn’t sustain the pace, and was quickly overrun by Naito, who came wading in from the outside, firing off one big shot after another, reminding me of Antonio Margarito, and not letting up with his punches. Yamaguchi, a more deliberate fighter, was out of his element when Naito chose to fight like this.
In rounds six through eight, Naito continued coming forward, landing hard right hands and backing Yamaguchi up with power shots. Yamaguchi fought back well, but wasn’t able to keep up with Naito’s high work rate. Naito clashed heads with Yamaguchi in both the 7th and 8th rounds, but thankfully, no cuts were caused by the head butts.
Both fighters went toe-to-toe in the 8th round, forgetting all about defense and just trading shots in a traditional manner. Yamaguchi, to his credit, came close to matching Naito for every shot, but was edged slightly in the round.
In rounds nine and ten, the action got a little sloppy, as both fighters began to show fatigue, their punches weakening and fired off a lot of weak, arm punches that did little damage. Both fighters missed a lot of their shots in these two rounds.
In the opening moments of the 11th, Naito hurt Yamaguchi with a combination to the head, and then after hurting him, he unloaded a barrage of punches, which stunned Yamaguchi for a second time. Seeing that Yamaguchi was taking tremendous punishment, referee Yuji Fukuchi stepped in and halted the bout at 1:11 of the round.