By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation minimum weight champion Rodel Mayol of the Philippines retained his title with a lopsided twelve round decision over former Japanese champion Takayuki Korogi at the Central Gym in Osaka, Monday night and set himself up for a title shot which, at present ,  appears to have been denied him by the apparent stranglehold Japan has in Asian boxing with the  support of the World Boxing Council.

Journalist and boxing manager Joe Koizumi reported that Mayol who is ranked No. 2 by the WBC will not get a shot at the world title won in the  main event on the same fight card by Japan’s unheralded WBC No. 13 Katsunari Takayama who “amazingly out-sped and out-slugged” defending champion Isaac Bustos. Koizumi said the 21 year old Takayama who battered Bustos is supposed to make his first defense against ex-champ Eagle Kyowa, another Japanese, who lost the title to Bustos by a  fourth round stoppage last December, sidelining the Filipino for the time being at least.

The 23 year old Mayol is considered one of the Philippines "Champions of the Future" alongside Ring Magazine featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao, OPBF No. 1 super flyweight Z "The Dream" Gorres and a host of other truly talented boxers.

Mayol who is now undefeated in 21 fights with 17 coming by way of knockouts swept every single round and even dropped the 29 year old  Korogi in the ninth round with a wicked combination but couldn’t finish him off. Korogi’s record fell to 13-5-3 with 4 KO’s. Scoring referee Bill Clancy of the US as well as judges Hiroyoshi Yasuda of Japan and well-known international referee/judge Bruce McTavish, a New Zealander who has made Angeles City his home, all scored a shutout for Mayol with identical 120-107 scorecards.

Koizumi who had earlier told Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today that none of the top Japanese fighters would come to Manila to fight Mayol despite the fact that the Filipino was the OPBF champion, downplayed Mayol’s shut-out victory stating that he “wasn’t so impressive as people had expected a much easier victory. Korogi, a Japanese veteran, averted almost all punches with his excellent defensive skills except that he took a good right-left hook combo and hit the deck in the ninth.”

Mayol was coming off an impressive seventh round TKO over superbly conditioned Indonesian champion Marti Polii in a title fight at Casino Filipino, Paranaque last January 29. Mayol won the OPBF crown with a first round annihilation of Japan’s Genki Ohnaka on December 7, 2003 when South Korean referee, the late David Chung stopped the massacre at 2:49 of the opening round.