Fuentes wins by KO

NAGOYA - ALA Promotions road warrior Rocky Fuentes successfully defended his OPBF Flyweight title against Yasuto Aritomi of Nagoya, Japan via an eighth-round KO.

Fuentes started a bit sluggish as he tried to go for a quick knockout and got caught by well-timed counter punches from Aritomi, and the Japanese won the opening round in two of the three judges’ scores.

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The second round saw Fuentes imposing his veteran skills and he caught Aritomi with solid jabs and hooks to the face. Rocky slowly found his rhythm and started connecting power shots to the body that obviously took its effect on Aritomi, allowing the Pinoy to win the next two rounds.

The Japan Boxing Commission applied the open scoring system wherein the scorecards were read after rounds four and eight.

Fuentes was ahead after the fourth round on the two judges’ scorecards, with only the Korean scoring judge/referee seeing the fight even.

The venue suddenly got a bit louder with fans trying to urge on their local boy to take the fight to the Filipino road warrior.

He did but the veteran Fuentes managed to keep the Japanese native at bay with jabs and body shots.

Aritomi was successful at times and managed to hit the face of the Filipino champion, but Fuentes was too focused and steady in his comfort zone, landing powerful body shots with ease.

Yap loses

The end came in the eighth round when both fighters gave and took power punches. Rocky beat Aritomi to the punch and landed a solid straight to the body that the Japanese felt. Rocky followed through with combinations to the head and body, sending Aritomi to the ropes and prompting the referee to stop the fight.

This was Rocky Fuentes’s second defense outside the Philippines, having defended his belt in Tokyo last June against Japanese brawler Shigetaka Ikahara.

Meanwhile, Marjohn Yap failed to win his debut fight outside native soil and lost by decision to relentless Japanese Hiromasa Ohashi. (PR)