By Carlos Costa

More success for Raquinel in Japan. 

Unbeaten 21 year-old Filipino Jayr Raquinel (10-0-1, 7 KO's) of Highland Boxing Gym landed a perfectly-timed left hook to the jaw of Japanese challenger Shun Kosaka to knock him out during the rough action of round four to retain his OPBF flyweight title on Sunday (May 27) in Big Wave, Wakayama, Japan, 80 Km southwest of Osaka.

From the get-go the Filipino southpaw made excellent use of his superior boxing skills, speed and punching-power to land accurately on the brave Kosaka (15-4, 4 KO's), who took a lot of damage.

The crushing left-hook that rocked down Kosaka made him land on the canvas flat on his back, and the Japanese fighter was visibly hurt.  

At the 7 second mark, the groggy 23 year-old warrior from Kobe, tried in vain to get back to his feet.  But the 10 second count was delivered by the experienced JBC referee, and the fight was over - and as a result Raquinel scores his second consecutive knockout victory in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The win was Raquinel's first defense of the OPBF-112 belt that he claimed by knocking out Keisuke Nakayama in nine rounds last March in Tokyo; and now it's very likely that the young OPBF flyweight champion will break into the WBC's top 15 at 112-pounds.

opbf-belt

Raquinel was guided in his win in Japan by veteran coach Alan Alegria, by his managers, former Filipino GAB boxing commissioner Juan Ramon Guanzon of Bacolod and promoter Brico Santig of Highland Boxing.

The fight card tin Big Wave, Wakayama, Japan, was a production of veteran boxing outfit Wakayama Kuratoki Promotions.

The author Carlos Costa of Panama is a boxing judge and Boxingscene.com fight reporter based in Asia.  Carlos can be reached by email: Carlos512@hotmail.com and Whatsapp +639184538152.