SHOWING the skill, speed, and a knockout punch that some pundits believed he did not possess, Japanese defending champion Takuma Inoue stopped Filipino challenger Jerwin Ancajas in the ninth round to retain his World Boxing Council bantamweight crown convincingly in Tokyo, Japan late Saturday night.
Performing before a packed hometown crowd at the famed Kogugikan Arena, Inoue landed two hard right straight body shots at Ancajas, who slowly crumbled down on his knees with 44 seconds left and failed to get up.
As the Japanese crowd cheered, Veteran American referee Mark Nelson promptly waved Inoue away and then gave the gassed and dazed Ancajas the 10-count before finally stopping the fight while embracing the fallen Pinoy contender with a look of concern.
This sparked a celebration inside the venue as Inoue’s camp celebrated the successful first title defense of the Japanese champ, who raised his record to 19 wins, five by knockout, against one loss.
Inoue’s elder brother, Naoya, the undisputed and undefeated world super bantamweight champion, then entered the ring, smiling, to join in the celebration.
Ancajas absorbed his first knockout loss in his checkered career as he fell to 34 wins, four losses and two draws, leaving his corner to contemplate if it might have been better if he had risen to a higher weight division instead of just three pounds over his previous 115-pound weight class where he reigned as longtime International Boxing Federation junior bantamweight champ.
The Japanese set the tone of the fight early on, connecting repeatedly, with his right straight seemingly having a telling effect on his Filipino foe, especially in the third round.
Ancajas’s best round was in the fourth when Inoue decided to go toe-to-toe, with both fighters managing to hold their ground during a slugfest.
Inoue reverted to the stick-and-move strategy in the fifth and sixth rounds, steadily piling up points, while dancing away easily as his rival tried to cut the distance and get his licks in.
All the chasing around must have affected Ancajas, who slowed down a bit in the succeeding round, leading to the fateful ninth when Inoue became the aggressor, delivering the lethal two-punch combination to settle the issue.
