By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Randy Suico has lost his Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation light welterweight title to No. 1 ranked Japanese Motoki Sasaki by a twelve round split decision at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Suico was making the first defense of the title he had won with a 5th round TKO over Kyung Suk Kwak of Korea on May 1, 2010.
The 30 year old Suico had previously lost his OPBF lightweight title by a split decision to another Japanese Ichitaro Ishii on December 20, 2008.
The 34 year old Sasaki dropped Suico in round ten and that made the difference in a close fight where Filipino scoring referee Edgar Olalo had Suico the winner 114-113 but the two Japanese judges gave Sasaki the edge and the title.
Both Nobuaki Uratani and Kazuo Abe had Sasaki the winner by identical 115-113 scorecards.
The new OPBF champion was coming off a 6th round TKO victory over Sun Haeng Lee in a scheduled eight round bout in Tokyo on April 3, 2010.
Sasaki had also beaten the “Gentle Giant” Rev Santillan twice in OPBF welterweight title fights scoring a 6th round TKO on February 16, 2008 and a 7th round TKO in a rematch on December 6, 2008.
Sasaki fought for the WBA world welterweight title but lost by a unanimous twelve round decision to Viacheslav Senchenko on October 3, 2009.
With the win Sasaki improved to 34-8-1 with 21 knockouts while Suico who also lost by a 9th round TKO in a world lightweight title clash against Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz on July 15, 2006 dropped to 29-6-1 with 25 knockouts
