(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Jim Dower: Undefeated World Boxing Council bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka (24-0-2, 17 KOs) retained his WBC title over #2 WBC contender Anselmo Moreno (35-4-1, 12 KOs) by a narrow 12 round split decision on Tuesday night at the Ota-City General Gymnasium, in Tokyo, Japan.

The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 115-113 for Yamanaka and 115-113 for the 30-year-old Moreno. Moreno appeared to do the better work, and land the cleaner shots in the fight.

However, he was fighting in the 32-year-old Yamanaka’s home country of Japan, and he needed to do more than just barely beat Yamanaka. He needed it to be more one-sided for him to escape with a win, and he failed to do this.

Moreno fought well in the 2nd half of the fight in nailing Yamanaka with hard left hands to the head, and keeping out of range of his counter attacks. Yamanaka pressured Moreno hard in the last three rounds, but it wasn’t effective pressure. Moreno was able to pick Yamanaka off with hard shots to the head again and again.

There’s likely little chance for a rematch for Moreno. He’s going to have to move on and put some wins together to get another crack at a title.

Moreno previously held the WBA bantamweight title from 2008 to 2010. He was considered by many boxing fans to be the best fighter in that division during that time until he was beaten by Abner Mares by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2010. Since then, Moreno’s career hasn’t been the same. He defeated two quality fighters in his next two fights before getting beaten by Juan Carlos Payano by a 6th round technical decision last year in September 2014. Moreno hadn’t fought since that time. It’s unclear why Yamanaka chose him as an opponent rather than a fighter doing well with their career.

In other boxing results on the card:

Kenichi Ogawa TKO 10 Deivis Julio Bassa

Orlando Salido still unhappy with draw against Rocky Martinez

A little over a week since his highly controversial 12 round draw against WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KOs) on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, #3 WBO contender Orlando Salido (42-13-3, 29 KOs) is still extremely unhappy with the controversial scoring by two of the judges in the fight.

Salido felt that he clearly won the fight, as do many of the boxing fans who saw the fight. Very few fans believed that Martinez did enough to get a draw out of the contest. The judges scored it 115-113 for Martinez, 115-113 for Salido and 114-114.

“I was very disappointed in the scoring, but very happy with my performance in the ring. It is just a shame that after working so hard and sacrificing so much I was not able to walk out with a victory I felt I had earned after 12 tough rounds.” Salido said via Fight News.

It is unfortunate that the 34-year-old Salido worked so hard in the fight and had to settle for a draw. A draw means essentially that Salido got nothing from the fight other than a payday out of it. The only good thing that has come out of the fight is that Showtime Sports is reportedly interested in having the two fighters face each other again, and Martinez has said that he’ll give Salido a rematch. However, Martinez will still be the WBO super featherweight champion, and the purse split will likely be in favor of Martinez rather than Salido.

“Everywhere I go, people tell me I won the fight and very few even think it was close enough to be a draw. I know I did not win all 12 rounds, but won the fight very clear and should had gotten the victory,” Salido said.

The two judges that failed to give Salido the victory, Burt A. Clements and Glenn Feldman, came up with some very questionable scores for a fight that appeared to be a clear win for Salido. Those judges have put themselves on the margins with their scoring of the fight.