OPBF LIGHT FLYWEIGHT TITLE STILL VACANT AFTER HENO-OGIDO BOUT ENDS IN A CONTROVERSIAL MAJORITY DRAW

NAHA CITY, Okinawa (May 21) – The light flyweight title in the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) is still vacant after the 12-round championship fight between no. 1 contender Edward “El Heneral” Heno of the Philippines and no. 2 ranked Seita Ogido of Japan ended up in a controversial majority draw last Saturday night at the University of the Ryukyus gym in Nakagami here.
Both judges Yoshikazu Furuta of Japan and Mirza Chulam of Malaysia scored it identical 114-114 while Filipino judge Lito delos Reyes saw it 115-113 for Heno.
“So the title is still vacant since it’s a majority draw,” said OPBF president Juan Ramon Guanzon, who also supervised it.
But Heno was already earlier declared as the winner by a majority decision after the fight when Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) supervisor Yukihiro Koike committed a mistake on his tabulation.
Koike tallied Chulam’s scores as 114-113 in favour of Heno. He also made the total score of Delos Reyes as 115-112 instead of only 115-113.
Koike admitted his mistake infront of Guanzon, Delos Reyes, Chulam and promoter Akinobu Hiranaka and his wife. Also present were international promoter-manager Ryota Kato and matchmaker Warren Elliot.
In fact, it was Kato and Elliot who saw Koike’s mistake on the tally sheets.
Heno suffered a cut due to an accidental headbutt in the second round but that did stop him from throwing more hard punches on Ogido. In the 11th to 12th round, Heno put up a non-stop combination that forced Ogido to clinch or ran away to save himself from further beating.
Ogido’s right eye was already swollen and both his nose and mouth were already bloody in the 11th round. But he still tried to fight back by throwing short body punches against Heno’s stinging jabs and uppercuts.
Ogido’s team, had earlier questioned Chulam’s scoring in the last two rounds which were both 10-8. They also asked on why Chulam scored two identical 10-all in the 7th and 9th rounds.
But OPBF president Juan Ramon Guanzon, who was also the supervisor, said that there was nothing wrong on the 10-8 and 10-all scores by Chulam.
“He didn’t violated the rules. However, we also don’t encourage judges to make an even score of 10-10,” explained Guanzon.
Akinobu Hiranaka of Hiranaka Boxing School is the promoter of the 12-round title fight.
Guanzon said that Heno and Ogida will be given the priority to fight again for the vacant title being the top two contenders.
Meanwhile, super featherweight Masatoshi Kotani pummelled to submission Indonesian Musa Letding via a first round knockout in the main supporting bout.

About Author