By Joe Koizumi
All Photos by Naoki Fukuda
Ohashi Promotions presents stellar undercards to entertain the capacity crowd of 55,000 spectators at the Tokyo Dome tomorrow (Saturday).
Former WBO bantam champ Yoshiki Takei (11-1, 9 KOs) will appear in the semi-final to the sensational main event of Inoue vs. Nakatani, and square off against WBA#15 super bantam Dekang Wang (9-1, 3 KOs), from China, over ten frames. Takei, a hard-punching southpaw Hamed stylist, forfeited his WBO belt to Christian Medina via fourth round TKO last September, and this is his first appearance since. Wang’s sole setback was inflicted by Fillipus Nightumbwa on points (all 116-112) in Namibia in 2024. Ohashi expects Takei to show a good performance prior to his attempt to win back the world belt.
Unbeaten OPBF welterweight champ Sora Tanaka (5-0, 5 KOs; amateur 58-8, 39 KO/RSCs) will highly risk his regional belt against sensational KO artist and ex-world challenger Jin Sasaki (20-2-1, 18 KOs) over ten. Tanaka, called “Yokohama Tyson,” is a busily head-moving Benny Briscoe stylist, being a short and stout-built infighter. Though flattened by Brian Norman’s single left hook, Sasaki came back with a second round stoppage of Marlon Pagalpalan this February. Tanaka’s power will be tested by Sasaki’s whirlwind attacks.
World featherweight contenders IBF#5 Toshiki Shimomachi (22-1-3, 12 KOs), from Osaka, and IBF#7 Reiya Abe (28-4-2, 10 KOs) will collide in an all-southpaw showdown. Abe failed to win the IBF belt, being stopped by Luis Alberto Lopez in New York two years ago. Having regained his Japanese national 126-pound belt, Abe, 33, displayed his trademark tricky mobility to frustrate his opponents since. Shimomachi, a 5’11” southpaw, may give him a nuisance with his advantageous height and reach. It will be an interesting confrontation of the puzzling southpaws.
Korean prospect Deok-No Yun (10-2-1, 8 KOs) will put his OPBF and WBO AP super middleweight belts against former Japanese Olympian Yuito Moriwaki (1-0-1, no KO; amateur 92-26) in their rematch. Their first encounter saw Yun floored by the 6’2” Japanese challenger’s opening attack, suffer a very nasty gash to be unable to go on, and it resulted in a technical draw in round four. This time we will be able to see who the stronger of the competitive hard-hitters is.
The curtain raiser will see the WBO Asia Pacific flyweight title bout, where defending champ WBO#4 Kosuke Tomioka (11-4, 8 KOs) will defend his belt against fast-rising compatriot Shogo Tanaka (5-0, 3 KOs; amateur 60-5, 21 KO/RSCs) over ten. Tomioka entered the WBO’s top ten thanks to his upset KO win over highly world rated Mark Vicelles last September, and seized the WBO AP belt by beating Tomonori Nagao on points this February. It will be a competitive contest as Tanaka is a fast-rising prospect with speed and skills.
https://boxrec.com/en/event/945323
Promoter: Ohashi Promotions.
View: Lemino in Japan; DAZN abroad
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