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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Gejon gets cut, loses in 10
Eriberto “Ioka” Gejon fought valiantly but a deep cut above his right eye stopped the fight, causing him to lose the WBA minimum-weight title match against Yutaka Niida by technical split decision at the Arena in Yokohama, Japan Sunday.
First loss
The fight, the Mandaue City-native Gejon’s first loss, was stopped at 2:10 of the 10th round.
Gejon demanded a rematch. His handler Rex “Wakee” Salud and the rest of the Filipino entourage believes Gejon won the fight after clearly out-punching the shorter Niida.
The card also featured Japanese bantamweight champion Hozumi Hasegawa, who kept his WBC bantamweight belt when he floored Mexican challenger Gerardo Martinez at 2:18 of the seventh round.
Gejon had a good start and controlled the first six rounds, effectively using his longer reach to keep the champion at bay. Niida managed to counter Gejon’s height advantage in the fourth, connecting several hooks to the head and body.
The eighth and the ninth rounds were the only rounds where Niida landed some heavy shots before engaging the challenger in a close-quarter fight that resulted into an accidental headbutt, which left a 1.5-inch cut below Gejon’s right eyebrow.
The cut was so bad that Puerto Rican referee Luis Pabon stopped the fight.
And instead of the English announcer, who introduced the fighters earlier, a Japanese announcer read the scorecards.
Panamanian judge Medardo Villalobos gave it to Gejon, 97-93, while Pinit Prayadsab of Thailand and Wansoo Yuh of Korea scored the bout, 96-95, for Niida. Prayadsab and Wansoo previously judged Niida in his last two title defenses, both scoring them in favor of the Japanese. (RCM)
(September 27, 2005 issue)
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