LUNAS RETAINS OPBF BANTAM TITLE IN JAPAN

Filipino Rolly Lunas Matsushita yesterday retained his OPBF bantamweight title with a 12th-round knockout over Masayuki Mitani at the Takasago, Hyogo, Japan.

Matsushita sent down Mitani twice in the final round, and the referee had to stop the fight after Mitani's second trip to the canvas as the latter seemed to be in terrible shape to continue.

With the win, Matsushita improved to 23 wins, 6 losses, 1 draw with 13 KO's and lines him up for a possible title crack possibly next year.

Matsushita was ahead by five points from one Japanese judge at the time of stoppage, while the second Japanese judge had Matsushita ahead by three points. Referee-judge Ben Necesario saw Matsushita the winner by only one point.