The Philippines Dennis Laurente has lost his Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation super welterweight title by a split decision to No.1 ranked Japanese Takayuki Hosakawa on Sunday, Manila Time. With the loss the veteran Laurente?s record dropped to 49-7-5 with 30 knockouts.
The two Japanese judges both saw it as a close fight with Sojo Sakamoto turning in a 115-113 scorecard while the other Japanese judge Hishatoshi Miyazaka had his countryman the winner by an even closer 115-114 margin.
However, Filipino judge Carlo Baluyot turned in what seemed like a ridiculously lopsided scorecard of 118-110 in favor of Laurente.
Laurente won the vacant title with a 6th round TKO over Tadasi Yuba last December 18, 2014 but unfortunately lost the title in his first defense.
In his last fight, Laurente dropped a unanimous ten round decision to John Jackson in Florida last August 2.
