TU?ACAO RETAINS OPBF TITLE WITH 6TH ROUND TKO

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Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation bantamweight champion Malcolm Tu?acao has retained his title with a 6th round TKo over Japanese challenger Daigo Nakahiro at the Prefectural Gymnasium in Osaka, Japan this evening.

With the win the 32 year old southpaw Tu?acao,the former WBC flyweight champion who won the title from Manny Pacquiao conqueror Medgoen Singsurat with a 7th round TKO on May 19, 2000, clearly puts himself in line for a well-deserved title shot.

Tu?acao had won and lost the OPBF bantamweight title but regained it with a with a split decision over Korea?s Seung Suk Chae on February 6 last year and successfully defended it for the third time today.

His win over Nakahiro came at 2:32 of round six. Tunacao had previously scored a twelve round unanimous decision over Kohei Oba on July 11 last year and then on November 2 won by a 5th round knockout over Hidenobu Honda.

Nakahiro is currently rated No. 10 super flyweight by the WBA. He is 29 years old and has a record of 21-3-1 with 8 knockouts.

He also has a ten round majority decision over Honda on August 29, 2009 but dropped a ten round decision to Yota Sato last September 25, 2010, raising the issue of how Nakahiro can be regarded as the mandatory challenger to Tunacao considering he is coming off a loss and was not rated by the OPBF in the super flyweight division.

Tu?acao?s title defense against Nakahiro was on the undercard of the WBC super flyweight title bout in which Mexico's lanky Tomas Rojas (35-12-1, 23 KO?s) retained his title by beating Japan?s Nobuo Nashiro (14-3-1, 9 KO?s).

All three judges, Ed Kugler (116-111). Hubert Min (114-113) and Jae Bong Kim (116-113) scored the fight in favor of the champion.

Another Filipino, super flyweight Sonny Boy Jaro (31-10-5, 20 KO?s) lost a unanimous ten round decision to comparatively inexperienced but undefeated Hirofumi Mukai (5-0, 0 KO?s) in a supporting bout. Two judges scored the fight for Mukai 99-92 and the third judge also for the Japanese by a 99-93 margin.