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FUENTES DEFENDS OPBF FLYWEIGHT TITLE AGAINST WORLD RATED IKEHARA By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Fri, 04 Jun 2010  Strongly built Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation flyweight champion Rocky Fuentes (25-6-2, 14 KO?s) defends his title for the first time against hard-punching Japanese Shigetaka Ikehara (20-1-2, 16 KO?s) at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on June 5 which can seat around 2,000 fight fans. The fight card is being promoted by the Yokohama Hikari Boxing Gym Ikehara is ranked No. 13 by the WBA and No. 15 by the WBC and was ranked No. 4 by the Japan Boxing Commission when he scored a stunning 3rd round TKO over fancied Shingo Yamaguchi on November 30, 2009. Although he is not rated by the Japan Boxing Commission at present, the OPBF secretary general Koji Ishizuka informed us that since Ikehara is rated by the WBC ?he can challenge for the OPBF title? since the OPBF rule 26 states that ?a contender rated in the same class by a recognized world boxing organization shall be entitle to priority in a Federation mandatory championship fight if he is willing to challenge.? Yamaguchi who was rated No. 13 by the JBC at that time was dropped by a vicious body shot by Ikehara who swarmed all over Yamaguchi forcing the referee to call a halt at 2:06 of the third round to prevent Yamaguchi from a further battering. Yamaguchi had fought for the world title no less than three times losing to light flyweight champion Yosam Choi by a 10th round TKO in 2002, dropping a unanimous decision to WBA flyweight champion Takefumi Sakata in 2008 followed by an 11th round stoppage to then WBC champion Fuentes won the OPBF title with a majority decision over Masafumi Okubo last March 9 with Japanese judge Kazunobu Asao scoring it 116-114 for Funetes while Filipino judge Ben Necessario also gave it to Fuentes 115-113. However, Australian Brad Vocale scored it an even 114-114. Ikehara is reportedly one of the prospects of the Yokohama Hikari Boxing Gym and is looking to move up in the world rankings and to hopefully win a world title in the future. A native of Okinawa, Ikehara belongs to a gym that was founded by the famous Japanese champion, the late Mitsunori Seki. In his last fight Ikehara scored a 2nd round TKO over Thailand?s Rungnirung Sakporton who had never won a fight according to boxrec.com. The only F ilipino he faced was Gilbert De La Torres whom Ikehara beat by a 2nd round knockout on June 4, 2007. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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