Guro falls in Japan; Victoriano wins

WORLD-RATED Norj Guro’s world title hopes will have to wait a little longer after suffering a setback on Nov. 27 in Japan.

Guro bowed down to Japanese Riyuna Yoshikawa by unanimous decision in their vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) Asia Pacific minimumweight title fight at the Sofia Sakai in Osaka, Japan.

All three judges saw Yoshikawa ahead on their respective scorecards with identical 78-74 scores.

Guro dropped to 12-8-1 with four knockouts, while Yoshikawa moved up to 4-1-1 with a knockout.

The 32-year-old Guro moved up weight to fight Yoshikawa for the regional belt. She’s originally an atomweight and is ranked No. 3 in the division by the World Boxing Council (WBC). She was hoping to earn a crack at WBC atomweight queen Fabiana Bytyqi.

On the other hand, Jules Victoriano walked out of the ring as the new WBC Asian Boxing Council lightweight champion after a seventh round knockout of defending champion Sachin Dekwal at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka last Nov. 26.

Coming off a unanimous decision defeat to Hong Quan Dinh in Vietnam in July, Victoriano made sure that the fight wasn’t going to the judges’ scorecards this time.

Victoriano caught Dekwal with a huge left hook that dropped him on all fours. Dekwal somehow survived and beat the referee’s count. But it wasn’t long until Victoriano caught Dewal, this time, he landed a vicious counter right that knocked the Indian star out with less than a minute left in the round.

Victoriano improved to 12-5 with nine knockouts, while Dekwal suffered his second career loss and fell to 11-2 with seven knockouts.