By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Sumio Yamada

By Fightnews.com

Unbeaten WBO junior flyweight champ Kosei Tanaka (9-0, 5 KOs), 107.75, Japan, impressively kept his belt as he dropped previously unblemished KO artist, mandatory challenger Angel Acosta (16-1, 16 KOs), 108, Puerto Rico, in the fifth session, controlled the action with better precision and pounded out a unanimous decision (117-110 twice, 116-111) over twelve hard-fought rounds on Saturday in Nagoya, Japan. It’s a very hot non-stop punching fight by the hard-hitting youngsters.

Paul Jerome Jakubuco (US), Javier Alvarez (US) both tallied 117-110, and Giustino Di Giovanni (Italy) had it 116-111, all in favor of the defending champ Kosei. Manuel Oliver Palomo (Spain) refereed.

Tanaka, a 22-year-old enfant terrible, already accomplished a remarkable achievement in winning a second world belt in his only eighth pro bout—along with Naoya Inoue (previous world record until Vasyl Lomachenko acquired the second belt in his seventh bout), and it was his initial defense of his second throne. He displayed remarkable improvement on the offense and the defense as well in admirably beating the dangerous challenger.

Acosta, a 26-year-old Puerto Rican who had iced all sixteen opponents since his pro debut in 2012, took the initiative with his opening attack and was in command in the first two rounds. Angel opened his wing and remained very aggressive in stalking the circling champ. Though blocked, Acosta’s solid left hooks looked strong and dangerous to the baby-faced champ.

The third saw Tanaka, on the defensive in the beginning, turn loose and connect with a very strong left uppercut to the belly, which apparently had Acosta slowing down with a single shot. The third was truly a turning point of the fight, as Tanaka dominated the third through tenth with his more accurate combinations.

Tanaka, a university student, connected with an uppercut, a left hook and an overhand right, dropping the Puerto Rican who looked very bewildered with his first knockdown that he experienced. Acosta furiously retaliated with all he had, but Tanaka showed his good defense in averting them with ease.

Acosta kept punching, but the precision of his combinations visibly became inferior probably with Tanaka’s constant body bombardments. Kosei’s left hook, in round seven, bounced off the head of Angel to clearly take the pace.

Angel’s will to win was great, and he, in every round, began throwing punches more positively, but Tanaka had him missing his combinations, and then fought back with more accurate and effective retaliations, steadily piling up points. In round nine Tanaka effectively battered Acosta’s midsection to have him wince upon his absorption of body shots.

Acosta, however, amazingly kept punching for all three minutes and won a point without doubt in round eleven. Tanaka seemed satisfied with his good defense to avert his all-out attacks with his upper body movement, footwork and blocking with gloves.

The last session, however, saw Acosta fading after his eleventh-round assault, while Tanaka was aggressive and effective to hurt the game warrior from Puerto Rico.

The winner Tanaka called a television commentator, WBA 108-pound champ Ryoichi Taguchi, from the ring, “Come up to the ring, and let’s fight in a unification bout.” Taguchi climbed up to the squared circle and positively responded to his proposal, saying, “Today I watched Tanaka’s very impressive performance. After my successful defense in September, I wish to fight Tanaka with both belts on the line.”

The loser Acosta, a talented hard-puncher, reviewed his first defeat, gloomily saying, “Tanaka was a good champion—fast and hard-punching. It wasn’t my night though I did my best.”

Kiyoshi Hatanaka, the manager/promoter of Tanaka and former WBC 122-pound champ, said, “I wish to negotiate with Mr. Hitoshi Watanabe of Watanabe Promotions to materialize the Tanaka-Taguchi unification bout with my best effort. We hope it will come true.”

We saw six world title bouts in total on Saturday and Sunday, and this reporter personally think that this Tanaka-Acosta bout was the best fight of all in terms of competitiveness, furiousness and high technical level.”

Promoter: Hatanaka Promotions.
WBO supervisor: Leon Panoncillo (US).