By Ronnie Nathanielsz
At the Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, WBA super featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama (16-0, 13 KOs) retained his title with a dominating knockout of Roy Mukhlis (22-3-2, 17 KOs) of Indonesia in five rounds of action.
Also on the card, strongly built and hard hitting Allan Tanada improved on his prediction of a 5th round knockout by scoring a 3rd round TKO to win the vacant Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super featherweight title over world-rated Japanese Rikiya Fukuhara at the Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
Boxing man Gerry Garcia of Rod Nazario’s “In This Corner” Gym where Tanada trains told the Inquirer that Fukuhara won the first round 10-9 on the scorecards of all three judges but Tanbada came back to take he second by an identical 10-9 score.
Garcia reported that in the first 20 seconds of the third round Tanada nailed Fukuhara with a straight right to the jaw and sent the Japanese fighter to the canvas for a mandatory eight count.
The 20 year old Filipino continued his assault and with a barrage of combinations to the body, suddenly switched to the head with a left hook and a right straight to score a second knockdown.
Determined to finish off Fukuhara, Tanada launched an all-out attack promoting the referee to call a halt at around 1:47 of the third round.
With the impressive win Tanada who was ranked No. 2 by the OPBF improved his record to 10-0-2 with 5 knockouts while Fukuhara dropped to 24-4-1, 18 knockouts.
The three inch height advantage of the Japanese fighter and his much wider body proved to be no match for Tanada who refused to be intimidated and in a pre-fight interview with the Inquirer predicted a 5th round KO.
Tanada said he was certain Fukuhara “will not be able to take my body shots.