Katsuma Akitsugi has graduated from beating undefeated prospects to dispatching dangerous veterans. After Friday, his career trajectory doesn’t appear to be slowing even a tick.
At the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida, in the co-main supporting the Nicklaus Flaz-Delante “Tiger” Johnson main event, Akitsugi stopped Vincent Astrolobio in seven rounds in an entertaining, back-and-forth bantamweight bout.
The time of stoppage from referee Christopher Young was called at 2 minutes and 35 seconds of the seventh.
Akitsugi – a 28-year-old from Wakayama, Japan, now fighting out of Las Vegas – has now beaten five straight opponents who had at least 19 career wins entering the fights. He was in tough with Astrolobio, a 28-year-old from General Santos City, Philippines, who had proven his durability and heavy hands coming in.
It was Astrolobio who took the initiative – and arguably got the best of the action – at the start. The fighters exchanged across the first round and a half, but when Akitsugi caught and dropped Astrolobio coming in hot, he became just a bit more cautious.
The knockdown seemed to embolden Akitsugi, who kept jabbing but showed more aggressiveness in searching for a home for his power shots. In the fourth, he found one, socking Astrolobio with another body shot that sank him to his knees. Astrolobio was up again – and still fighting, landing a couple sharp right hands. But Akitsugi walked through them, pounding body shots and snapping Astralobio’s head back with a left hook.
Astrolobio rebounded in the fifth, and may have even stolen the round with a lunging power right to the body, then a two-punch combination upstairs. But in the sixth, Akitsugi landed another body-shot knockdown, hard left hand that sent Astrolobio bouncing off the ropes. He rose to make the bell and seemed to be soon steady afoot.
But by the sixth, Akitsugi seemed to have found the skeleton key. Astrolobio was still throwing, and occasionally landing, but at one point in the seventh, Akitsuigi had him on the ropes to fire off roughly 10 straight unanswered punches. Astrolobio, still game, answered with a stinging left hook to the head – but it was no blueprint to win a fight.
And sure enough, a bang-bang combination from Akitsugi – right hand upstairs, left to the body – put Astrolobio down on all fours, and for the final time.
Akitsugi, 14-0 (4 KOs), will surely want to avoid similar firefights in the future, but the sturdy chin and power he showed in this one bodes well as he continues moving up the ranks.
If Astrolobio, who fell to 20-6 (15 KOs), is now on the verge of becoming a prospect gatekeeper, he’s a damn good one.
