By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Japan’s No. 1 ranked super featherweight Rikiya Fukuhara has beaten hard-hitting Filipino Fernando Otic in an eight round bout at the Super Arena in Saitama, not far from the capital of Tokyo.
All three judges scored the fight for the Japanese with two judges turning in 79-74 scorecards and the third judge having Fukuhara the winner 78-75.
With the win the top-rated, 31 year old Fukuhara improved to 24-3-1 with 18 knockouts while the 24 year old Otic dropped to 11-7 with 9 knockouts.
Otic was knocked out in the third round in an Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation title fight against Satoshi Hosono on May 16, 2009 but in his last fight Otic scored a 4th round knockout over Thailand’s Somsak Sitchatchawal on January 6 this year.
Fukuhara on the other hand was coming off a 1st round knockout of Atsushi Tsuburaya at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
