by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion Rolly Lunas who is based in Japan and fights under the name Rolly Matsushita has lost his title in his first defense to Japan’s Hiromasa Ohashi in a shocking 7th round knockout in Nagoya.
The 25 year old Lunas who won the 122 pound title with a twelve round split decision over Thailand’s Wethya Sakmuangklang last January 11,2009 was counted out by referee Suehiro Tsuchiya at 1:50 of the 7th round following a flurry of solid combinations by Ohashi that dropped Lunas for the full count.
The secretary general of the Japan Boxing Commission Koji Ishizuka informed BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that Lunas was winning on the scorecards of all three judges when Ohashi connected with a solid combination and was knocked out.
Ishizuka told us that judge Takeshi Shimakawa had Lunas ahead 59-56 at the end of the sixth round while Yuji Fukuchi had Lunas leading 59-55 and Yasuo Tomoto 58-56.
Wethya fought Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao for the WBC International super bantamweight title and lost by a 6th round TKO on April 28, 2001.
The Japanese fighter was No.11 in the May rankings of the OPBF but stunned Lunas who had previously reigned as OPBF bantamweight champion having successfully defended the 116 pound belt five times after winning it from countryman and former world champion Malcolm Tunacao by a tenth round technical decision on January 13, 2007.
Lunas also fought for the WBA bantamweight title but dropped a unanimous twelve round decision to Anselmo Moreno in Panama on October 30, 2008.
With his win Ohashi improves to 20-8-3 with 14 knockouts while Lunas (Matsushita) drops to 26-8-1 with 14 knockouts.
