FUTURE Filipino boxing superstar Kenneth Llover ended his 2025 campaign with a bang, scoring a sensational second-round knockout of Ayati Sailike on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Japan.
The 22-year-old Llover quickly established his dominance with some vicious punches that hurt Sailike a couple of times in the opening round.
In the second round, Llover hurt Sailike with a solid lead right hook to the head. He followed it up with a right hook-left hook combination and finished the assault with a left straight to the body that sent Sailike to the canvas.
Sailike survived the count but Llover immediately swarmed him with some heavy blows and finished him off with a solid left hook. The referee stopped the bout at the 2:07 mark.
Llover remained unbeaten at 17-0 with 12 knockouts, while Sailike dropped to 12-10-3 with five knockouts.
Llover is closing in on a world title shot. He is currently rated No. 5 by the International Boxing Federation (IBF), No. 9 by the World Boxing Council (WBC), and No. 10 by the World Boxing Association (WBA) in the bantamweight division.
Meanwhile, four-division world champion Johnriel Casimero returned to his winning ways after scoring a fifth-round technical knockout of Tom Mizokoshi in the undercard.
Casimero showed he was on a different level than his younger opponent, the 26-year-old Mizokoshi. He slowly picked him apart round after round with solid punches. In the second round, Casimero busted up Mizokoshi’s nose, which bled all throughout the round.
Casimero later dropped Mizokoshi with a solid left hook-right hook combination.
Mizokoshi managed to stand back up from the knockdown, but the referee immediately waved off the bout at the 1:10 mark of the fifth round of the scheduled eight-rounder.
Casimero bounced back from a loss to Kyonosuke Kameda in his previous fight two months ago in Japan. He improved to 35-5-1 with 24 knockouts. Mizokoshi fell to 11-6-2 with five knockouts.
After the fight, Casimero called out former champion Luis Nery. At 36 years old, Casimero’s days as an elite fighter may be numbered, but he could break into the world rankings in the featherweight division if ever he secures a fight with the highly rated Nery at 126 pounds and pulls off an upset victory. / EKA