By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Fightnews.com

Hard-punching Toshio Arikawa (14-4, 12 KOs), 146.75, successfully made his initial defense of the Japanese welterweight belt as he avenged his previous defeat in 2013 and scored a come-from-behind TKO over Yasuhiro Okawa (14-13-3, 5 KOs), 147, at 0:27 of the fourth round on Monday in Tokyo, Japan. Arikawa was a Tokyo University dropout, and kept fighting since his pro debut in 2008. Tokyo Univ. is to Japan is what Harvard Univ. is to the US. Despite his high academic career Arikawa dropped out of the highest seat of learning and entered the paid ranks. Having acquired the vacant national belt by stopping Hiroyuki Shindo in the tenth and final round this April, Arikawa, stiff but strong, took a countering right and hit the deck midway in round two, but displayed a furious retaliation to make his grudge rival a bloody mess. The third saw Arikawa batter him from all angles and have him in great trouble with the referee’s intervention to save the gory loser in the next session.

Promoter: Kawashima Promotions.

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