By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Sylvester “Silver” Lopez successfully defended  his WBC International super flyweight title by scoring an impressive  5th round TKO over Japan’s gutsy Katsumi Makiyama at the Ynares Sports Center in Pasig on Saturday night.

Referee Bruce McTavish wisely called a halt at 23 seconds of the fifth round as Lopez connected with a flurry of vicious punches from all angles sending Makiyama reeling against the ropes.

The Japanese who started off aggressively and connected with nifty right straights and solid uppercuts in the early stages of the fight and engaged the Filipino champion in several torrid exchanges on the inside was nailed with a cracking left hook and a right straight in the final seconds of round one and was clearly saved by the bell.

Makiyama gave almost as much as he got in rounds two and three but as Lopez began to find the range he started to hurt the challenger with precise punches going down to the body and then switching to the head and had him groggy in the closing seconds of round four when the bell once again saved Makiyama.

Lopez knew he had the Japanese in trouble and went after him at the start of round five and quickly had him in trouble before McTavish stepped in to call a halt.

The 22 year old Lopez improved his record to 12-2-1 with 8 knockouts while Makiyama who is 28 years old fell to 14-6-1 with 4 knockouts.

The Japanese fighter has battled some of the best in former world flyweight champions Chatchai Sasakul and Medgoen S ingsurat to whom he lost as well as veteran Juanito Rubillar.

Lopez who won the title with an 8th round TKO victory over previously undefeated South Korean champion Jong Nam Park also at the Ynares Sports Center in Pasig last April 5 said he had trained hard for the title defense against Makiyama which paid off.

Lopez said “even if I am tired I don’t think about it, I run in the morning and work out in the afternoon so that if I get a fight all of a sudden, I am ready.”