Masayuki Ito made a successful first defense of his WBO super featherweight title, stopping Russia's Evgeny Chuprakov with a seventh-round TKO as part of a world championship triple-header on Sunday night at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo.
In other action, Takuma Inoue gained the interim WBC bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Thailand's Tasana Salapat, while Ken Shiro defended his WBC light flyweight belt for the fifth time by beating Saul Juarez of Mexico by unanimous decision.
Ito was fighting for the first time after becoming the first Japanese fighter in 37 years to win a world title in the United States, where the 27-year-old took the vacant WBO belt in July.
From the first round, the fight involved serious head-butting. Chuprakov kept uncharacteristically close, repeatedly getting into clinches that resembled sumo wrestling and frustrated Ito.
In the third round, a head-butt opened a cut near Ito's left eye. From there, his corner instructed Ito to keep his distance, and he began landing rights to the body.
Not allowing the Russian to get close, Ito put the pressure on from the middle of the match, landing a series of consecutive punches.
After Ito cornered Chuprakov in the seventh round, landing both lefts and rights, the Russian's corner threw in the towel and the referee stopped the fight.
"[Early on] I limited myself too much to fighting in close, because I wanted to finish up the year with a KO," said Ito, who improved to 25-1-1 with 13 KOs. "I'm wondering if [the crowd] thought it was interesting."
Inoue, by winning his first world title, joined older brother Naoya, who has held belts in three weight classes, as a world champion. "It's a great feeling," Takuma Inoue said.
Inoue, ranked fifth by the WBC, scored a 3-0 decision over the second-ranked Salapat to improve to 13-0 with three knockouts.
Inoue, 23, had planned to make his first title challenge two years ago, but injured his right hand just before the bout and it was canceled.
Shiro's 3-0 decision over the seventh-ranked Juarez was so dominant that one judge gave the Japanese the nod in all 12 rounds, although he expressed regret that he couldn't end the fight early.
"I was too anxious thinking I had to win by knockout," said the 26-year-old Shiro, now 15-0 with eight knockouts. "There was too much wasted energy."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
