Unbeaten champion Takashi Uchiyama of Japan fended off a challenge from Israel Perez of Argentina on Wednesday to defend his WBA super featherweight title for the ninth time.
The veteran Japanese, 35, remained in control throughout the bout, sending a barrage of body punches towards his challenger, also 35, who kept his guard high. In the eighth and ninth rounds, Uchiyama showed off furious charges, putting Perez into a corner.
Perez was not able to return to the fight in the 10th round, awarding a technical knockout to the charismatic champion. The headline bout was a part of the WBA tripleheader at Ota Ward Gymnasium in Tokyo that also saw Ryoichi Taguchi of Japan rise to become the new light flyweight champion with a unanimous decision, dethroning Alberto Rossel of Peru.
Taguchi, making his first attempt at the world title, sent Rossel to the floor twice with a sizzling left body punch.
“It is truly incredible. I don’t have words to describe how I feel,” he told local media.
In the super flyweight category, Kohei Kono of Japan retained his belt by drawing with Norberto Jimenez of Dominican Republic.
“With my first defense of the title, I can continue boxing. I am so glad,” Kono told Japanese media.
In a western metropolis of Osaka, Katsunari Takayama of Japan beat compatriot Go Odaira with a seventh-round technical knockout to claim the minimumweight belts for both the IBF and the WBO at the Bodymaker Colosseum.
Also in Osaka, Cuban fighter Guillermo Rigondeaux survived two seventh-round knockdowns to retain his WBA-WBO super bantamweight belts with an 11th round technical knockout against Hisashi Amagasa of Japan, who was making his first attempt at the world title.
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
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