By Hisao Adachi
On Saturday night, at the International Conference Hall in the city of Nagoya, the capital of the province of Aichi, former WBC super bantamweight champion Kiyoshi Hatanaka, 51 years of age and the president of Hatanaka Boxing Gym of Nagoya, staged a big card.
In one of the 8-round supporting fights, Kiyoshi Hatanaka's son made his fifth professional fight. The always aggressive super flyweight Kento Hatanaka (5-0, 5 KOs, 19 years old and Hatanaka Boxing Gym of Nagoya) continues his unbeaten streak by securing a knockout in the fifth round over #4 ranked Japanese minimumweight Kenta Matsui (8-8, 1KO, 23 years old and Mikawa Boxing Gym).
In the ten round main event, former minimumweight and junior flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka (11-0, 7 KOs, 22 years old and Natanaya's Hatanaka Boxing Gym) made his flyweight debut with a knockout at 2:26 seconds of the ninth round over world ranked #12 Ronnie Baldonado (10-1-1, 7 KOs, 22 years old and from Carmen, Cotabato del Norte, Philippines), who is a fighter handled by MP Promotion of Manny Pacquiao.
This match was televised live for the Chukyo region (three provinces of Aichi, Mie, Gifu) by CBC TV with its headquarters in the city of Nagoya.
The Japanese WBO flyweight world champion Sho Kimura, from Tokyo, was at ringside as a TV guest commentator. Sho Kimura was awarded the WBO flyweight title in Shanghai, China, last July when he technically knocked out Chinese superstar Shinming Zou in the eleventh round, and in December 2017, he retained his crown for the first time as he defeated former world champion Toshiyuki Igarashi by knockout.
For Tanaka, it was his fight back to the ring since his match against Rangsan Chayanram (Palangpol CP Freshmart), whom he defeated by knockout in the ninth round last September in Osaka, Japan, for the second defense of the WBO flyweight crown.
After that contest, he vacated he crown to rise to the flyweight category in order to go on to become a triple world champion.
The promoters are hoping to match Tanaka and Kimura at some point this year in what would be a major event in Japan.
In the fight with Baldonado, Tanaka's power carried up with him, as he dropped and nearly finished the Filipino fighter in the fourth round. And continued to batter him until the ninth round, when Japanese referee Yuji Fukuchi stopped the fight. AT the time of the stoppage, Tanaka was ahead on all three of the judges' cards with identical scores of 80-71.
