Uchiyama Stops Melgerejo, Kono Beats Tampus
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Two Filipino boxers lost in their Orienal Pacific Boxing Federation – OPBF – title fights against Japanese champions in a fight card at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
OPBF No.1 ranked super featherweight Aaron Melgerejo who was at one time a sparring partner of Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao lost by a 7th round TKO to Japanese champion Takashi Uchiyama. Melgarejo’s corner which was headed by former OPBF champion Tiger Ari wisely threw in the towel after the challenger was trapped in a corner and was receiving a bad beating at the hands of the champion.
Filipino boxing judge Epi Almeda reported that although Melgarejo bloodied the nose of Uchiyama in the second round, the Japanese champion proved to be the better conditioned fighter and connected with accurate and harder blows compared to Melgarejo’s intermittent punches.
The 29 year old Uchiyama who was coming off a 5th round TKO over Thailand’s Thong Por Chockchai last May 2 improved to 13-0 with 10 knockouts while Melgarejo dropped to 14-7-1 with 5 knockouts.
Super flyweight Marvin Tampus put on a game showing against champion Kohei Kono and even dropped the Japanese in the very first round but Kono was the far busier fighter and out-punched the hard-hitting Tampus in terms of the volume of punches thrown and connected.
After recovering from the shock of the first round knockdown, Kono opened up a cut over the eyebrow of Tampus which worsened as the fight progressed.
Tampus, realizing that his only hope was a knockout, went after Kono in the final round and clearly hurt the champion with some big shots but in a desperate lunge the Filipino missed badly with a haymaker and fell to the canvas off-balance. The referee, according to Epi Almeda, ruled it a knockdown and gave Tampus a standing eight-count. The break helped Kono who was the better conditioned fighter to recover and he ended the fight with a strong flurry to win comfortably on the scorecards of all three judges. Two of the judges turned in identical 116-112 margins and the third scored it for the champion 115-110.
The 28 year old Kono who won the vacant OPBF title with a twelve round unanimous decision over another Filipino Daniel Ferreras last May 2 improved his record to 24-4 with 8 knockouts while the 25 year old Tampus fell to 19-10-2 with 13 knockouts.