Inoue hammers Parenas to retain WBO title
WBO super flyweight champion Naoya Inoue (9-0, 8 KOs) scored a second round knockout over Filipino challenger Warlito Parenas (24-7-1, 21 KOs) on Tuesday at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japan.
The Japanese fighter returned to the ring for the first time in a year and dropped Parenas twice before the referee stopped the one-sided bout.
Inoue stopped Argentina's long-reigning world champion Omar Narvaez in the second round to win the WBO belt last December. However, he badly hurt his right hand in the fight and has been inactive since due to the injury.
In his first defence, the champion was landing solid combinations over his taller challenger's guard from the start and sent Parrenas to the canvas with a hard right hand to the head in the second round. As soon as Parrenas got up, Inoue backed him into the ropes and dropped him to a knee with a barrage of punches before the referee stopped the fight at 1:20 of the round.
At 22 years-old, Inoue is already a two-division world champion, having previously won the WBC light flyweight title.
Also on the card, Japanese veteran Akira Yaegashi (23-5, 12 KOs) won the IBF light flyweight title when he outpointed defending champion Javier Mendoza (24-3-1, 19 KOs) of Mexico.
The challenger outgunned Mendoza throughout in a action packed bout, and the scores were 120-107, 117-11 and 119-109, all in favor of Yaegashi.
Former WBA strawweight and WBC flyweight champion Yaegashi moved down in weight and became a three-division world champion.