Comments Thread For: Kal Yafai Retains WBA Title, Decisions Tough Suguru Muranaka

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Barclaycard Arena (formerly NIA) , Birmingham, West Midlands - In his first world title defense, Kal Yafai (22-0, 14 KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Suguru Muranaka (25-3, 8 KOs) to retain the WBA super flyweight title. The Japanese challenger was down in the second.

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[BigZ44]

Muranaka was game and tough as hell. I like Yafai a lot, he's gonna be a good one as he continues to progress

[redmish]

Perfect first defence for kal. Muranaka was so tough but yafai dealt with him really well. Great learning fight.

[OctoberRed]

Yafai not ready for someone like Chocolatito just yet

[SteveM]

Wow! Murunaka one of the toughest of the tough. Got hit with everything including the kitchen sink and still came forward and landed.

You could make a case that Yafai isn't such a big puncher as first thought, but listening to the thudding body shots, up to twenty in a round, I don't think that is the case, just that Murunaka is exceptionally tough. He will be pis5ing pints of blood over the next few days.

Last 3 rounds Yafai got tired and started to push punches and slap a bit. He said he wants to fight Gonzalez but I'm thinking that may be a step too far as Roman has the same engine as the little Jap but more accurate and higher output. Yafai needs to up the boxing and decrease the infighting as he has the foot movement to do so.

Overall, a fantastic boxing match and great learning experience.

[Sparked_26]

Wow! Murunaka one of the toughest of the tough. Got hit with everything including the kitchen sink and still came forward and landed.

You could make a case that Yafai isn't such a big puncher as first thought, but listening to the thudding body shots, up to twenty in a round, I don't think that is the case, just that Murunaka is exceptionally tough. He will be pis5ing pints of blood over the next few days.

Last 3 rounds Yafai got tired and started to push punches and slap a bit. He said he wants to fight Gonzalez but I'm thinking that may be a step too far as Roman has the same engine as the little Jap but more accurate and higher output. Yafai needs to up the boxing and decrease the infighting as he has the foot movement to do so.

Overall, a fantastic boxing match and great learning experience.

That's what I thought regarding the sound of the punches - they sounded heavy.

But honestly up until the around the 10th round I was just expecting Yafai to actually succeed in landing a perfect punch and taking him out with a single shot or combination. Even at that weight. The Japanese fighter got caught in between his own punches with big counters several times and ate them but the law of averages normally says one lands squarely on the button and turns the lights out. But he was harder than a coffin nail that lad.

I thought it would end like when Quigg one punch KO'd the Mexican fellow a few months back. He was eating clean shots on the jaw round after round but you just knew he was gonna get short-circuited at some stage because he was getting hit too cleanly.

Japanese fighters seem to be great opponents though. I don't know how highly regarded this lad was, I'd imagine not too much since he only fought in one venue until tonight but the toughness they seem to have is unreal. And I know the top-flight Japanese fighers don't necessarily travel over to the U.k.

[sterling]

That's what I thought regarding the sound of the punches - they sounded heavy.

But honestly up until the around the 10th round I was just expecting Yafai to actually succeed in landing a perfect punch and taking him out with a single shot or combination. Even at that weight. The Japanese fighter got caught in between his own punches with big counters several times and ate them but the law of averages normally says one lands squarely on the button and turns the lights out. But he was harder than a coffin nail that lad.

I thought it would end like when Quigg one punch KO'd the Mexican fellow a few months back. He was eating clean shots on the jaw round after round but you just knew he was gonna get short-circuited at some stage because he was getting hit too cleanly.

Japanese fighters seem to be great opponents though. I don't know how highly regarded this lad was, I'd imagine not too much since he only fought in one venue until tonight but the toughness they seem to have is unreal. And I know the top-flight Japanese fighers don't necessarily travel over to the U.k.

I agree, he was so tough! and this was a good fight