By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
On the undercard of a national super bantam title bout, three quarterfinal bouts in the Phoenix Battle super feather tournaments took place on Tuesday at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan. Unbeaten ex-national feather ruler Keisuke Matsumoto (13-0, 9 KOs: amateur 80-15, 30 KO/RSCs), 130, scored a beautiful one-punch stoppage in halting JBC#7 Ryuo (AKA Ryu Nakai; 12-4-1, 7 KOs), 130, at 0;35 of the third round in a scheduled eight. Keisuke, the son of three-time world challenger Koji Matsumoto, failed to appear at the weigh-in to defend his national belt because of bad dehydration two years ago. So, he had to observe the JBC’s suspension for a year. After a nineteen month hiatus, Keisuke, with good power punching and with good physique, displayed his improved form to outclass and outpower the tough opponent.
Former WBO AP ruler JBC#3 Kai Watanabe (17-3-1, 10 KOs), 130, defeated #14 Go Ei (6-2, 2 KOs), 130, by a unanimous decision (77-74, 78-73, 79-72) over eight hard-fought rounds. The victorious speedster is handled by three-time world 140-pound challenger Lion Tetsuo Furuyama, now seventy-eight years young.
Having returned from a five-year campaign since his pro debut in Mexico, JBC#2 super feather Riku Kitani (11-3, 5 KOs), 130, scored three victories in a row here by winning a unanimous nod (77-75, 78-74, 79-73) over Kanta Fukui (14-8-1, 8 KOs), 129.5, over eight. Kitani will be slated to exchange gloves with the unbeaten ex-champ Matsumoto in August. The tourney’s final prize to the ultimate winner will be 10,000,000 Yen ($62,500USD) to be presented by Ohashi Promotions.
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