by Ronnie Nathanielsz

The Philippines Roemart Sentillas has lost as expected to former world minimum weight champion Katsunari Takayama in an eight round bout at the World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan, late Thursday.

The Japan Boxing Commission had earlier responded to our concerns that the fight would be a mismatch since Sentillas had a recrd of 7-4 with 4 knockouts while Takayama had a record of 22-3 with 9 knockouts and was a former world minimum weight champion who had fought some of the best in the division.

Takayama was also ranked No. 2 by the Wrld Boxing Association and No. 4 by the World Boxing Council whle Sentillas was only No. 7 in the Philippines .

JBC secretary general Koji Ishizuka earlier informed us that both the Japan Boxing Commission and the Philippine Games and Amusements Board  (GAB) had sanctioned the fight. Under a current agreement between the JBC and the GAB only Filipino boxers rated in the top twelve are allowed to fight in Japan even though there are obvious disparities as evident in the case of Sentillas and  Takayama