WBC #5 Yap tops Nakajima, keeps OPBF 118lb belt

Fightnews.com

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Japan-based Filipino, WBC#5/IBF#8 Mark John Yap (29-11, 14 KOs), 117.75, kept his regional belt as he applied his trademark hit-and-run tactics and earned a unanimous nod (116-112 twice and 117-111) over game but gory Japanese challenger Takafumi Nakajima (29-10-1, 13 KOs), 118, over twelve hard-fought rounds on Wednesday in Tokyo, Japan.

It’s a closer affair than the official tallies indicated since Yap, leading on points on open scoring system, had to ride a fast bicycle to avert Nakajima’s desperate retaliation. Yap, faster and more accurate in earlier rounds, piled up points, leading on points—78-74 twice and 79-73 after the eighth. Nakajima sustained a bad laceration over the left optic in the tenth and withstood bleeding therefrom to show his last surge. Yap was cleverer in mixing it up by demonstrating his precision in catching the onrushing target. The ref was Kazutoshi Yoshida.