By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Light flyweight Richard Garcia has scored a ten round majority decision over Japan ’s Masayuki Kuroda at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Based on the judges scorecards it was a close fight. The 23 year old Filipino got the nod of two judges by margins of 96-95 and 97-96 while the third judge scored it even at 96-96.
With the win Garcia improved to 18-10 with 4 knockouts while the 22 year old Kuroda dropped to 12-3 with 9 knockouts.
Garcia lost by a 5th round TKO to Thailand ’s talented Pornsawan Kratingdaenggym (21-1, 16 KO’s) who is ranked NO. 8 by the IBF in a battle for the WBC Asian Boxing Council interim minimum weight title on February 14 last year but came back to win three fights since that setback.
Garcia won the vacant Pan Asian Boxing Association interim flyweight title in a clash with No. 6 ranked junior flyweight Myung Goo Yuh.
Then he scored a majority decision over Thai veteran and former IBF minimum weight champion Ratanapol Sor Vorapin (56-6-1, 45 KO’s) on October 3 last year after which he scored a unanimous decision over eight rounds against Japan’s Kenji Yoshida on November 24.
Kuroda on the other hand was coming off a 4th round TKO victory over Shin Ono (10-2, 2 KO’s) last September 29.
