By Rey Danseco

 

Philippine national titlist Dondon Sultan failed in his bid to bring back the Oriental and Boxing Federation (OPBF) welterweight belt to the country after defending champ Kazuhiko Hidaka stopped him on Thursday at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

 

The 5-foot-10 Hidaka floored the nearly 3-inch shorter OPBF top ranked challenger with a vicious left-hand punch in the ropes, which forced Australian referee Malcolm Bulner to interfere and stop the carnage at 1:07 in the 7 of a scheduled 12-round tiff.

It was the first defense of the title Hidaka had captured from ex-two time titlist Rev Santillan, the Cebu-trained southpaw native of Jaro town in Iloilo, via fourth round TKO last March 19 also at the Korakuen Hall.

 

However, Hidaka who is rated No. 10 by the World Boxing Council, has an obligation to put the 5-foot-11 Santillan in his next defense due to the an agreement that their managers, Shichiro Kimura and Rex "Wakee" Salud, respectively, agreed upon early this year.

 

For Sultan, it will be his second failure to win the regional belt after he took a controversial split decision loss over 12 rounds to Japanese conqueror (the first conqueror of Santillan), Hiroshi Watanabe, in Nagoya, Japan in September of 2003.

 

Sultan dropped his record to 11-5-2 with 5 knockouts, while Hidaka improved to 22-4 with 16 KOs.

 

Sultan, a Cebu-based native of Labason, Zamboanga del Norte, weighted 145 ½ pounds in the official weigh-in before the fight while Hidaka was heavier at 146 ½ lbs.

 

They are both 26 years old, but Sultan, born September 7, 1978, is 11 days older. Sultan has been the Philippine welterweight champion since September 2002. From the outset, Sultan had a hard time to execute his fight plan when Hidaka wisely used his height and reach to his advantage.

 

In the deadly 7th round, the Japanese fighter pressed the action and pinned Sultan in the neutral corner with a series of punches to the face until his wicked left finished the butchery. At the time of stoppage, Hidaka was ahead on all of the judges' scorecards with identical 59-55 verdicts.