By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Boxing Beat, Joe Koizumi

Mexican challenger Monserrat Alarcon (8-3-2, no KO), 111.75, impressively captured the WBO female flyweight belt as she floored the Japanese defending champ Nana Yoshikawa (7-2, 4 KOs), 112, in the first and fourth rounds, sustained a nasty gash and was finally awarded a unanimous technical decision (68-64, 69-63, 70-82) at 0:04 into the seventh session on Sunday in Sakai, Japan. It’s a night for Monserrat, not for Nana. The 23-year-old Mexican furiously started fireworks and quickly dropped the champ with a solid long right hook. Yoshikawa, 38, barely regained her feet, but looked a little dazed after her very first visit to the canvas through her amateur and professional career. Nana attempted to show a retaliation with jabs and left-right combinations, but went down again with Monserrat’s busy combos midway in round four. Alarcon suffered a wide and deep laceration on an accidental butt, and claimed the big gash to the referee. The doctor saw her unfit to go on during the recess after the sixth, and the referee Danrex Tapdasan called a halt in the beginning of the seventh. It wasn’t a performance of a female boxer with no previous knockouts but one of a boxer with a little hand of stone (manitas de piedra).

Promoter: Sakai Higashi Mitsuki Promotions.
WBO supervisor: Leon Panoncillo (US).