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Nishioka retains against brave Munroe

Phil D. Jay 
WBN Editor
Champion shows class to out-point Brit

WBC Super-Bantamweight Champion Toshiaki Nishioka kept hold of his title after a unanimous points decision victory over Rendall Munroe in Tokyo, Japan.

All three judges, two Americans and a Mexican, scored the bout 119-109 which didn’t really reflect the effort shown by challenger in a cauldron of Japanese fans at the Sumo Hall.

Munore started well, taking the centre of the ring and pushing back the champion with his strength but seemed to struggle generating enough power to hurt the WBC Champion.

After round four, Nishioka took control of the bout and picked his punches superbly, shaking Munroe in the fifth with his trademark left hand and again in the seventh with an awesome body shot.

Munroe tried to fight back, taking the ninth round to Nishioka, but the body punching of the Japanese fighter seemed to take the steam out of the “Boxing Bin Man” in the later rounds and his knees dipped in the tenth after another crunching shot to the ribs.

It was a sterling effort by the challenger and I would have had it a couple of rounds closer than the judges, but you can’t deny the class of Nishioka, who is a worthy champion and definitely the number one in the division at the moment.

Munroe drops to 20-2, whilst the champion celebrated his 37 victory in his 44 contest and remains unbeaten since 2004.

On the under-card in Tokyo, Nicaraguan Roman Gonzalez claimed the interim WBA World Light-Flyweight Title after knocking Francisco Rosas down three times in the second round, prompting the referee to stop the contest.

It was all the more impressive considering the two fighters fought hard 12 rounds in February 2009, with Gonzalez coming away with a majority decision on that occasion.

On Saturday Night, Sammy Gutierrez also claimed an interim version of WBA world title by knocking out Luis Carillo in the third round to claim the minumumweight crown and improve his record to 26-5-2.

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