By Takahiro Onaga

In late July 2013 Nihito Arakawa (28-6-1, 17) was the Japanese fighter on the lips of every Western fan, following his gusty and brave effort Omar Figueroa Jr. Although he came up short against Figueroa the “Japanese Rocky” had done enough to make an impression on American fans and would return to the US the following year to face Jorge Linares.

Although Arakawa lost again to Linares he has since had a bit of a career revival and earlier this year he claimed the Japanese Lightweight title, over-coming Kota Tokunaga to become a 2-time national champion.

Today Arakawa made the first defense of that title as he defeated #4 ranked JBC challenger Yusuke Tsukada (8-6, 3) with a 6th round TKO.

Looking from the outside the bout looked like a massive mismatch, an experienced and talented champion against a limited novice. That however was only half the story with the bout being a thoroughly enjoyable contest, despite being mostly a 1-sided bout.

There was little to pick between them early on. Arakawa look to establish his pressure whilst Tsukada tried to use his height and reach to keep the champion at bay. It was a quiet round overall but one that seemed to spell the difference between the two men, with Arakawa controlling the ring and getting in when he wished. It was that same control that allowed Arakawa to get inside in round 2 and eventually hurt Tsukada, who went down soon afterwards for the bouts first knockdown.

Having got himself in the lead Arakawa seemed to set off for round 3 like a man looking to finish things early and landed straight left hands at will, dropping Tsukada with a clean one partway through the round. Although downed Tsukada wasn't out and he rolled through the knockdown before recovering to his feet and began a brave fight back. That fight back saw him cut the right eye of Arakawa and leave swelling under the left of the champion in round 4. It was a gallant effort and one that saw the challenger claim a clear round and a foot hold in the bout.

The challenger tried to seek more success with a busy offensive output in round 5 and had real moments through the round, until he was rocked in the final seconds and then struggled to make his way to his corner. It would have been a fine time to pull the challenger out given his stumbles to end the round, especially given he was down 49-44 on two of the cards when the scores were announced with the open scoring. His team however seemed happy to send him out for one more round, likely on the understanding that if he was in trouble the towel would come in immediately.

In round 6 Arakawa set off on the front foot and and eventually scored a third knockdown, dropping Tsukada hard and immediately the towel came in from the challengers cornerman, who rightfully ended the bout before his brave charge could get back to his feet.

With this win Arakawa records his first defense and will likely return to the ring in 2017 to face Shuhei Tsuchiya in his next defense, with Tsuchiya himself winning on the under-card.

Takahiro Onaga covers boxing for both boxingscene.com and asianboxing.info and can be reached on twitter @Takahiro_Onaga or e-mailed at takahiro.onaga@asianboxing.info.