By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
The second title bout of the quadruple event, unbeaten 21-year-old southpaw Kazusa Kawabuchi (5-0, 4 KOs), 158.75, also upset Japanese middleweight champ Kazuto Takesako (19-4-1, 15 KOs), 158.75, by a stunning stoppage at 0:20 of the seventh session on Sunday in Tokyo, Japan. The vacant WBO Asia Pacific belt was also at stake, and Kazusa, the younger brother of sensational up-and-coming sumo wrestler Kazuma (6’1”, 450 lbs), thus acquired a couple of belts with a single victory. Kawabuchi displayed a strong opening attack to have the champ’s left optic badly puffed in round one. After the fifth the challenger was leading on points: 48-47 twice, 49-46 on opening scoring system. The ref finally declared a halt with the champ’s eye badly swollen and almost closed in the fatal seventh. This young middleweight six-footer may be worth watching from now on.
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