By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

It might be a good policy to separate a press conference of multi world title promotions according to a governing organization. Only for the WBC title bouts there was a press conference with four contestants in attendance on Thursday in Tokyo, Japan. All of them confidently said they were in good shape and would be victorious on Sunday.

Daigo Higa, WBC flyweight champion, said, “Having trained so hard, I wish to extend my KO streak to fourteen to make it an blemished 14-0.”

Yoko Gushiken, his manager, said, “I’ll advise Higa not to finish so early for the sake of higher TV ratings.”

Masson, his challenger and European champ, said, “It won’t be so easy to finish me, as I belong to a different level from that Higa previously fought.”

Ken Shiro, WBC light-flyweight champion, said, “Today I’ll train well, but I’ll be relaxed to see a movie as usual.”

Pedro Guevara, ex-titlist, said, “This is a very important fight for me. I’ll win back the belt to bring it back to Mexico.”

The WBC officials are as follows:
The referee of the Higa-Masson fight: Thomas Taylor (US).
The referee of the Ken-Guevara bout: Hector Afu (Panama).
The judges both for the WBC title goes: Mike Ross (US), Alejandro Rochin (Mexico) and Jun-Bae Lim (Korea).
WBC supervisor: Mike George (US).