Top-ranked Riku Masuda of Teiken Boxing Gym knocked out champion Fumiya Fuse of Watanabe Boxing Gym in the fourth round to wrest the Japanese bantamweight title in a highly touted bout on July18 in Tokyo.
The end of the scheduled 10-rounder at Korakuen Hall came 2 minutes and 21 seconds into the round when the left-handed Masuda landed a counter right hook to the head, sending Fuse to the canvas. While Fuse, also a southpaw, struggled to his feet, the referee counted him out as he could not take a fighting pose.
Masuda suffered a cut above his right eyelid due to Fuse’s well-timed punch in the third round. Fuse connected with a counter left and forced Masuda backpedal before the KO in the fourth round.
With the defeat, Fuse failed in his first defense of the title he captured in April. Masuda and Fuse fought once in May last year, in which Masuda stopped Fuse in the seventh round.
After the fight, the 26-year-old Masuda, ranked 11th in the division by the World Boxing Association, said, ‘’While I had a hard time dealing with Mr. Fuse, the punch that I knocked him out was the kind of punch I was training.’’
With the win, Masuda now has a record of five wins, all by KO, against a loss. For his part, Fuse, also 26, fell to a 14-4 win-loss tally with three KOs.