By Mark Vester
At the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1, 8 KOs) got revenge by winning a wide twelve round unanimous decision over Oscar Larios (65-7-1, 41 KOs) to capture the WBC featherweight title. The scores were 119-107, 118-109 and 116-111. Aoh used his boxing skills to dominate early and knocked Larios down in the twelfth. Larios tried to stage a rally in the late rounds but it was too late.
The two met last October, with Larios winning a controversial split decision to retain the title and handed Aoh his only loss.
Also taking place in Japan, at the World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2, 10 KOs) stopped Vusi Malinga (18-3-1, 11 KOs) in the first round to retain his WBC bantamweight title. He pounded Malinga with hard left hands, sending him down three times before the referee called the fight at 2:37 of the first. It was Malinga's first loss since 2000.
It was hHasegawa's eight defense since winning the belt from Thailand's Veeraphol Sahaprom in April 2005. His last three defenses have all ended within two rounds.
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