IBF#13 Mishiro halts Miyamoto, keeps Japanese 135lb belt

Pound-for-pound, which is the most competitive category in Japan?

Lightweight division, this reporter believes. If not world class, we have many good crowd-pleasers in this class.

Japanese champ IBF#13 Hironori Mishiro (16-1-1, 5 KOs), 134.75, proved too sharp and skillful for hard-punching southpaw JBC#11 Kazuaki Miyamoto (10-9, 8 KOs), 134.5, decked him with a well-timed right in round five and finally halted him with the referee’s intervention at 0:31 of the sixth round on Friday in Tokyo, Japan. The triumphant victor who retained his national belt said from the ring, “I’m willing to unify the regional belts.” His first target is the newly crowned OPBF ruler Shu Utsuki (14-1, 12 KOs), and the next may be WBO AP titlist Katsuya Yasuda (14-1, 9 KOs).

Also, his competitors are former OPBF and WBO AP titleholder Shuichiro Yoshino (17-1, 13 KOs; a Shakur Stevenson victim), hard-punching ex-national champ Shuma Nakazato (14-3-3, 8 KOs; once dethroned Shu Utsuki via third round stoppage) and Hinata Maruta (14-2, 10 KOs).

We may appreciate our lightweight star wars here in Japan.

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