Allan Tanada Predicts KO Win Over Rikiya Fukuhara

by Ronnie Nathanielsz

Strongly built and hard hitting Allan Tanada predicts he will win the vacant Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super featherweight title with a 5th round knockout over world-rated Japanese Rikiya Fukuhara when they clash on Monday at the Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Tanada who has a record of 9-0-2 with 4 knockouts and is ranked No.2 by the OPBF  weighed in at 129 pounds while his opponent Fukuhara tipped the scales at the 130 pound limit at the official weigh in on Sunday afternoon.

A member of Team Tanada, Gerry Garcia reported that the Japanese is about three inches taller and “appears to be much wider than Tanada . However, Allan is not intimidated by his opponent and is predicting a 5th round KO.”

Tanada was quoted as saying that Fukuhara “will not be able to take his body shots” when they clash in a big, world double championship  fight card featuring Takashi Uchiyama (15-0, 12 KO’s) vs Roy Mukhlis (23—2-2, 18 KO’s) for the WBA super welterweight title and Kohei Kono (25-4, 9 KO’s) vs Tomas Rojas (33-12-1, 23 KO’s) who will battle for the vacant WBC super flyweight title.  

Tanada was overweight by 3 pounds on Saturday. He jogged around Ueno Park in the  afternoon and still had a good ramen meal in the evening. He was around 2 lbs. overweight on the morning of the weigh-in and reduced by doing some light exercise and jogging around Ueno Park.