By Pablo Fletes, notifight.com
Japanese champion Takashi Uchiyama and his challenger, the Nicaraguan Oliver Flores, made weight for their scheduled showdown on Thursday December 31 in Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, where Uchiyama's super featherweight title of the World Association Boxing (WBA) will be at stake.
The weigh-in was performed Wednesday at noon in Tokyo, midnight in Nicaragua. And Flores came in at 129.25 pounds, while Japan's Uchiyama cam a little bit higher at 129.5, both under the division limit of 130 pounds.
With a record of 27-1-2, 17 knockouts, Flores will attempt to become the 12th world champion in the history of Nicaraguan boxing when he attempts to overcome the heavily favored Uchiyama at dawn on the last day of 2015.
Uchiyama, however, is one of the strongest Japanese boxing champions today. He won the crown in January 2010, beating Mexico's Juan Carlos Salgado, and has since achieved 10 successful defenses of the crown.
Uchiyama has an undefeated record of 23-0-1, with 19 knockouts. And the only draw on his record came against the Philippines has Michael Farenas three years ago.
The history of Nicaraguan champions began with Alexis Arguello on November 23, 1974 against Mexico's Ruben "The Spikes" Olivares, followed by Edddy Gazo, Rosendo Alvarez, Ricardo Mayorga, Adonis Rivas, Luis Perez, Eduardo Marquez, Jose Alfaro, Juan Palacios, Roman Gonzalez and Randy Caballero.
