By Jason Kim: In something of an upset, Elio Rojas (21-1, 13 KO’s) defeated World Boxing Council featherweight champion Takahiro Oh (17-2, 8 KO’s) by a 12-round unanimous decision on Tuesday night to capture the WBC title at the Korakuen Hall, in Tokyo, Japan. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 117-111 and 116-113.
Rojas, 26, formerly from the Dominican Republic and now living and fighting out of Brooklyn, New York, dominated the entire fight, controlling every round and outworking the Japanese champion in each round. The fight was never close as Oh, 25, had problems letting his hands go and was simply outworked by the much busier Rojas.
By the 9th round, now hopelessly behind on the score cards, Oh started pressuring Rojas a great deal. However, Rojas skillfully moved around the ring avoiding Oh’s punches and making him pay with a constant flow of combinations.
Though the judges scored rounds for Oh, I couldn’t see him winning any of the rounds because he wasn’t throwing enough punches and not connecting with the ones that he did throw. By the end of the fight, Oh had slight swelling around both eyes, but other than that there were no cuts or knockdowns that occurred in the fight.
Rojas, ranked number #1 in the WBC featherweight division, raked Oh with hooks and combinations in rounds one through three. Oh just stood there bouncing through each of these rounds, not letting his hands go and looking confused and a little intimidated. By the end of the 2nd, Oh’s eye was beginning to redden from the shots he was getting nailed by from Rojas.
The rounds were totally one-sided at this point in the fight with Rojas landing almost every shot. Oh landed less than five punches in both the 1st and 2nd rounds and less than three in the 3rd. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t land when he would try to, but he just wasn’t throwing anything. Rojas made it difficult by backing away when Oh would come forward looking to land.
At the same time, Rojas would nail Oh hooks to the head as he would push forward. That had an effect on Oh, making him hesitant to attack. Early in the 4th round, both fighters clashed heads twice. The action was stopped to allow the ringside doctor to examine Oh’s face but there were no cuts that opened up from the head clash.
Rojas continued as before to dominate the rounds, hitting Oh at will in both the 4th and 5th rounds and not worrying about any return fire because Oh still wasn’t punching much. In the 6th and 7th rounds, Oh found some success early on, connecting with some big shots early in both rounds.
However, Rojas controlled the second part of both rounds and landed a lot of punches. In the 8th round, it was business as usual for Rojas as he landed almost every punch that was thrown in the round. Again, Oh was having problems letting his hands go.
In the 9th round, Oh pressured Rojas trying to brawl with him. It didn’t work, however, because Rojas got the better of the toe-to-toe action and won the exchanges. In the 10th through 12th rounds, Rojas moved around the ring hitting Oh whenever he pleased and rarely getting hit in return.
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