MONSTER DELIVERY
Eric Armit rounds up the world title action from Thailand and Japan
Naoya Inoue restarts the World Boxing Super Series with tremendous KO
THAI star Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (114 3/4lbs) retained his WBC super-flyweight title for the third time with a one-sided 12-round points victory over Mexico’s Iran Diaz (114 3/4lbs) at the Impact Arena in Pak Ket, Thailand on October 6.
It was an easy night for Srisaket, now 47-4-1 (41), as he punished Diaz in round after round. Southpaw Diaz, 14-2-3 (6), showed good defensive work and scored with some sharp counters but he lacked the power to compete with the stronger champion.
Srisaket had Diaz badly shaken in the seventh and the Mexican finished with cuts around both eyes. There were no knockdowns but Srisaket won by large margins on all three cards: judge Richard Decaufel had it 120-108 while Yuji Fukuchi and Jun Bae Lim both scored it 119-109.
Jay Nady refereed the fight, which was jointly promoted by NKL and One Championship.
The following day, on a Ohashi Promotions show in Yokohama, Japanese “Monster” Naoya Inoue (118lbs) kicked off the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) bantamweight tournament in spectacular style with a one-punch kayo of Dominican southpaw Juan Carlos Payano (117 1/2lbs).
After some early sparring, the first punch Inoue threw in anger was a thunderous straight right that put Payano down flat on his back with blood pouring from his nose. There was no way Payano was going to beat the count and referee Pinit Prayadsab promptly waved the fight over. Inoue improved to 17-0 (15) and retained the secondary WBA title. He put down a strong marker for the other fighters in the WBSS bantamweight tournament, in the semi-final of which he will face the winner of the October 20 fight in Orlando between Emmanuel Rodriguez and Jason Moloney.
This was the first loss inside the distance for former WBA champion Payano, who falls to 20-2 (9).
Also in Yokohama was the opening bout of the WBSS super-lightweight tournament, which saw Kiryl Relikh (140lbs) hold on to his WBA title with a close unanimous verdict over Russian Eduard Troyanovsky (139 1/4lbs). In a low-key affair Relikh’s aggression and higher workrate saw him build an early lead over the defensive-minded Troyanovsky. The Russian staged a strong finish, rocking Relikh [pictured] in the last, but despite the closeness of the scoring Relikh was a clear winner.
The three judges, Luigi Boscarelli, Gustavo Jarquin and Pawel Kardyni, all had scored the fight 115-113 to Relikh. The Belarusian, who is now 23-2 (19), goes forward to meet the winner of the October 27 fight between Regis Prograis and Terry Flanagan in the WBSS semifinals.
Former IBF champion Troyanovsky falls to 27-2 (24).
Japan’s Ken Shiro (107 3/4lbs) made a successful fourth defence of his WBC light-flyweight title, halting Filipino Milan Melindo (107 1/4lbs) in the seventh round when a bad cut over Melindo’s left eye saw the ringside doctor advise that the fight be stopped.
Melindo scored with some hard rights to take the second round but Shiro won every other session. He was too quick and too slick for Melindo and raked the challenger with hard, accurate punches from both hands before slashing open a cut over the left eye of Melindo with a punch in the sixth round.
Late in the seventh referee Laurence Cole asked the doctor to inspect the cut and the fight was stopped. Shiro, 14-0 (8), was in front 59-55 on all three cards at the time of the stoppage. Former IBF champion Melindo, 37-4 (13), suffered his first inside the distance loss.