By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

by fightnews.com

Unheralded Kazuhiro Nishitani (17-4-1, 9 KOs), 134.25, surprisingly captured the Japanese lightweight belt when he came off the canvas and finally scored a great upset in halting defending champ Shuhei Tsuchiya (22-5, 18 KOs), 134.5, at 2:52 of the eighth round on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. Tsuchiya, formerly a kick-boxer boasting of his power punching with which he once registered twelve consecutive stoppages since his debut in 2009, was of course a prefight favorite, and took the initiative in the first two sessions, as expected. Nishitani, a taller switch-hitter, furiously fought back hard to be in command in rounds three and four. Tsuchiya, a stout-built hard-puncher, landed a vicious right counter to badly drop the challenger, who, however, retaliated with all he had for the remainder of the fifth.

After the fifth, the open scoring system indicated 47-47 by all the judges. The pugnacious champ, a year his senior at 30, accelerated his attack to dominate the sixth and seventh with his heavy body shots. The eighth, however, witnessed an unexpected trick as Nishitani switched to southpaw, lifted a punch-of-life left uppercut to the chin, decking Tsuchiya with a thud onto the canvas. Though he resumed fighting, Tsuchiya sank again, this time, flat to be unable to regain his feet. The ref promptly called a halt without taking a count by considering his damage caused by Nishitani’s desperate combinations that looked so effective that badly hurt the champ. It’s a stunning upset. Though still early in 2017, this extravaganza may be a strong candidate for the Fight of the Year in the non-world title bout category by fight scribes’ year-end poll.

The semi-windup saw WBC#15/IBF#8/WBO#6 140-pounder, unbeaten ex-national champ Hiroki Okada (15-0, 11 KOs), 143.5, had a tough time coping with the aggressiveness of Filipino Rodel Wenceslao (11-14-1, 4 KOs), 143.5, in earlier rounds, but connected with a wicked shot to the liver to floor him and furiously accelerated his attack to deck the game but damaged opponent again to cause the third man’s halt. Okada’s defensive skills and well-rewarded patience were fully shown to the praising audience.

We saw a couple of very impressive stoppages at the Hall.

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