By Pablo Fletes, notifight.com
Felix Alvarado (18-1, 15KOs) believes that he did enough to win the New Year's Eve battle with WBC junior flyweight champion Kazuto Ioka (14-0, (KOs), which took place in Osaka, Japan. After twelve rounds, the scores were 119-109, 119-109, 115-113 in favor of the champion. Alvarado made it a war and had his moments, but the three judges did not feel he did enough to take the title from the hometown champion.
"I'm happy with the fight I had in Osaka, but I am also discouraged by the result. I know I could given more in the fight, but some things happened that affected me with my performance," said Alvarado.
"I did more and deserved the victory. I did everything humanly possible to win and I think I did. At the very least I deserved a draw. What happens is that it is difficult to fight in another country and the judges get carried away because of the crowd. I connected on Ioka with combinations of four punches and everyone was silent, but he connected with two punches and people screamed. I feel that the judges got carried away by the crowd."
"Ioka is a great fighter, but I feel I won that fight. I'm not a loser. I bet if that fight was in Nicaragua I would have won. Ioka fought on his land, but I feel happy and motivated amid this unjust defeat.