At Nihon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, hometown hero Takahiro Aoh (20-2-1, 9 KOs) dropped Vitali Tajbert (20-2, 6 KOs) in the third round and then dominated him for a unanimous twelve round decision to capture the WBC super featherweight title. The scores were 117-112, 115-112 and 116-112.
Tajbert claims that he injured his right hand in the second round and fought the rest of the way with only one hand.
“This was the first knockdown of my career. The punch didn’t impress me or had me hurt. I injured my right hand when I landed a punch in the second round. I definitely want a rematch. With two hands I would have defeated Aoh. Aoh put a lot of pressure on me and it was difficult to beat him with only one hand. I'm hoping that he will give me a rematch. When we were in the ring, he said that he didn’t feel like a champion,” Tajbert said.
Dietmar Poszwa of Universum, who promote Tajbert, said - “The right side of Aoh’s face displayed what Vitali's left hooks did. It was completely swollen. They both need to be medically examined. Congratulations and my compliments to Aoh. It was too bad that Vitali injured his hand because he was using it very, very well in the first two rounds. If he didn't injure it, the victory would have went to him. Now we have to wait until Aoh finishes the mandatory against Humberto Gutierrez. Then a rematch will be possible and we really want this very much.”