WBO #15 Muranaka defeats Pael

By Joe Koizumi
Photo by Boxing Beat

WBO#15 ex-Japanese flyweight champ Suguru Muranaka (24-2-1, 8 KOs), 117.5, proved too aggressive and agile for Filipino Renoel Pael (19-4-1, 9 KOs), 117, winning a unanimous verdict (79-74, 78-74 twice) over eight fast rounds on Friday in Tokyo, Japan. Muranaka, unbeaten in last nine years, had forfeited his national flyweight belt on the scale, having failed to make the 112-pount limit at 114.75. Despite his dejection and disappointment, Muranaka defeated the mandatory challenger Tetsuma Hayashi by a unanimous nod in April last year. Muranaka this night displayed versatile combinations upstairs and downstairs to have the Filipino on the defensive all the way to show his strength and stamina before the audience.

Before the main event there was a ceremony to celebrate a recent retirement of former OPBF super-middleweight titlist Yuzo Kiyota, who defended his regional belt nine times through a couple of reigns. Kiyota, in July 2014, had an ambitious crack at the WBO 168-pound throne against Robert Stieglitz only to lose on a tenth-round stoppage in Germany. The muscular hard-puncher’s overall mark was 29-5, 27 KOs. His vast talent hadn’t fully bloomed because of his pitiful lack of good competitors in Asia.