By Jason Kim: World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight champion Daisuke Naito (35-2-3, 22 KOs) defeated his Chinese challenger Xiong Zhao Zhong (12-2-1, 8 KOs) in a thrilling 12-round unanimous decision on Tuesday night at the Differ Ariake, in Tokyo, Japan. The bout had pure action with both fighters slugging it out for 12 long rounds in one of the most exciting bouts of the year.
Naito, 34, who was making his 5th defense of his WBC title, was cut over both eyes by head butts in the fight and was knocked down in the 6th round by a big right hand from Zhong. Naito was also hurt in the 8th and 11th rounds from big looping shots from Zhao.
The final judges’ scores were 114-110, 114-111 and 113-111. Sporting a five inch reach and height advantage over the 4’11” Zhong, Naito was able to land his shots with ease in the fight and had did a good job of keeping Zhong on the outside.
However, Zhong was able to lunge forward from time to time and connect with huge shots to the head and body, in particular when Naito would come in range to land one of his right hands. Although short in height, Zhong has a lot of power in both hands and was much stronger than Naito.
Though lack of reach, however, was a big problem for Zhong, because it made him have to dash forward to try and land, making him an easy target for Naito’s jabs and right hand shots on the way in.
In the 1st round, Naito fought well, jabbing from the outside and using movement to keep Zhong from getting in range to land his huge bombs. Naito lowered himself to get down to the height of Zhong to hit him with big hooks to the head and body.
The round looked to be an easy one for Naito for the most part. Zhong did catch up to him late in the round and land a big left hook to the head, but that was about the extent of all Zhong could do in the round. He had problems with the reach and movement of Naito and was getting hit often by his longer shots.
Naito began to tee off with power punchers in the 2nd round, moving in circles around Zhong and pounding him with lefts and rights to the head. At this point, Naito was making it look easy as he blasted away at Zhong without much return fire. Zhong missed with many of his wild shots as he was loading up way too much with his punches trying to connect with something big.
Near the end of the round, Zhong caught Naito with a big left-right combination as Naito was pulling back after having landed a right hand. The punches had no effect on Naito, though, and he continued to pound away at Zhong until the end of the round.
In the 3rd round, Naito fought well, landing right hands and avoiding throwing combinations after his bad experience from the previous round getting countered by Zhong. However, Zhong began to cut off the ring better and land big lunging hooks to the head that snapped Nieto’s head back each time.
Things were going well for Zhong in the last minute as he continued to land big shots. When the ten seconds to go signal was made, Zhong got a little confused and thought the round had ended and started walking back to his corner.
Naito took advantage of this by running after him and landing a right hand to the front of his head. Naito could have tagged him in the back of the head but was kind of enough to let his punch hook around to the front of Zhong’s head. I’m sure Zhong wasn’t happy either way.
In the last minute of the 4th, Naito was cut over his left eye after clashing heads with Zhong. The cut was bound to happen because Zhong was rushing in at him frequently and two fighters had been clashing heads off and on since the 2nd round.
In the 5th round, Naito landed some hard right hands to the head and fought well, avoiding many of Zhong’s attempts to land his bombs. The two clashed heads once again, this time opening a cut over the right eye of Naito. Later in the round, they bumped heads for a second time but there were not cuts on this occasion. Zhong made the round close by landing big hooks.
Naito was dropped in the 6th round by a lunging right hand from Zhong. For the remainder of the round, Naito used the time to clinch Zhong to prevent him from landing any more big shots. In the 7th, Naito fought well showing no signs of having been hurt in the previous round. He moved in wide circles around Zhong, hitting him with long right hands and jabs.
Zhong did land several huge shots in the round, but nothing big enough to put Naito down again. In the 8th, Zhong caught Naito with a big right hand near the end of the round that staggered Naito. However, there wasn’t enough time for Zhong to add to the damage.
In rounds nine though twelve, Naito seemed to get his second wind and landed well with power shots. He kept on the move and avoided many of Zhong’s big power shots. Naito was still getting tagged every once in a while by one of Zhong’s huge punches.