Hard-hitting southpaw Japanese Kazuhiko Hidaka (21-4, 15 KOs), 146, impressively captured the OPBF welter belt as he decked WBC 7 ranked defending champ Rev Santillan (21-2-1, 15 KOs), 145.75, a lefty Filipino, with a countering left in the third and twice more with effective combinations in the next, scoring a fine stoppage at 2:41 of the fourth round. Hidaka made a good start with solid overhand lefts, almost toppling the champ in the first round. He floored Santillan in the third, but the champ, in the fourth, showed his retaliation with a southpaw left uppercut and had the Japanese rubber-legged. Hidaka, however, fought back with solid combos, dropping him twice more to prompt referee Wansoo Yuh to declare a stoppage. The official tallies of the three judges (scoring-ref Yuh, Filipino Alex Vidal and Masakazu Uchida of Japan) were identical, 30-26, after the third.
Promoter: Shin Nihon Kimura Promotions. Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi
