WBO World Champions Kosei Tanaka, Kazuto Iok, Miyo Yoshida successfully kept a grip on their respective crowns during the annual Japanese title fest to bring in 2020.

WBO Flyweight World Champion Tanaka, for his part, dominated and halted Wulan Tuolehazi to defend his title. Tanaka proved too powerful and ended the fight in the third round. Tanaka is now 15-0 and has already won world straps in three weight divisions. The Tuolehazi victory adds to Tanaka’s victories over Jonathan Gonzalez and Ryoichi Taguchi. It caps another fine year for the rising star.

WBO Jr. Bantamweight World Champion Ioka made it two wins on the spin with a unanimous decision triumph over Jeyvier Cintron. A close and competitive contest ended with Ioka gaining the W 116-112 twice and 115-113 on the scorecards. Boasting a record of 25-2 and himself a four-weight ruler, Ioka has only been defeated at the very top level.

WBO Female Jr. Bantamweight World Champion Miyo Yoshida dominated China’s Li Ping Shi to push to 14-1 record. Scorecards: 97-92, 99-91, 98-90.

Jhunriel Ramonal picked up the vacant World Boxing Organisation Asia Pacific Jr. Featherweight Title after defeating Yusaku Kuga in the very first round.

WBO Asia Pacific Mini-Flyweight Champion Ginjiro Shigeoka improved to 5-0 by stopping former world champion and veteran Rey Loreto in five rounds.

via www.worldboxingnews.net

On New Year’s Eve, in the penultimate world title bout of the decade, WBO Flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka (14-0, 8) [田中恒成] will take on Chinese challenger Wulan Tuolehazi (13-3-1, 6) [乌兰]. Today the two men met for the first time, and took part in a face-off at Haneda Airport. Fight venue: Ota-City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

Tanaka, who headed over to Tokyo from Nagoya especially for the event, spoke to the press and stated that it was good to have such an exciting event to finish the year.

Wulan, who is fighting in Japan for the second time, explained that Tanaka is a great fighter, but added that he was confident and would do everything he could to win.

The men faced off, without breaking away, for around 30 seconds, in what was an intense stare down.

The two men also took part in the ceremonial contract signing, that we often see done in Japan in the week of a fight, often on the week of a world title fight.

Via AsianBoxing.info
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