ITO STOPS VILLANUEVA IN 9TH ROUND TO KEEP WBO ASIA PACIFIC TITLE

JAPANESE Masayuki Ito pummelled to submission Filipino challenger Lorenzo “Thunderbolt” Villanueva in the 9th round to keep his WBO Asia Pacific super featherweight title last April 13 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Referee Katsuhiko Nakamura stopped the fight in 1:40 of the 9th round of the 12-round championship fight.
Before the stoppage, Ito was also already leading on the three judges’ score sheets – Takeshi Shimakawa (80-71), Danrex Tapdasan (79-72) and Masakazu Murase (79-72).
It was the first title defense by Ito, who is also the current Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) super featherweight champion.
The 26-year old Ito improved his record to 21 wins with 10 knockouts against only one loss and one draw while the 31-year old Villanueva dropped to 32-3-0 with 28 KOs.
Villanueva, who is a native of Midsayap, North Cotabato is now under the KSP Boxing Stable. He is a former WBO Oriental featherweight champion.

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