Jezreel Corrales dethrones Takashi Uchiyama with second round KO
Underdog Jezreel Corrales (20-1-1, 8 KOs) dethroned previously unbeaten WBA super featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama (24-1-1, 20 KOs) by a second round KO on Wednesday night at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
The Panamanian challenger knocked down Uchiyama three times in the second round to end the Japanese fighter's six-year title reign.
Corrales hurt Uchiyama with some hard shots in the first round and then drooped him with a left hand to the head in the second.
Uchiyama got back up but he never recovered from that shot and he was soon down again from a barrage of punches.
Uchiyama fired back with some shots while Corrales was trying to finish him off before a hard left put Uchiyama down for the third time. Then referee Robert Hoyle stopped the fight at 2:59 of the round.
Also on the card, Japan's Kohei Kono (32-8-1, 13 KOs) retained his WBA super flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Inthanon Sithchamuang (43-12-2, 22 KOs).
Kono dropped the Thai challenger in rounds 4 and 5 before earning scores of 119-106 on all three scorecards.
WBA light flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi (23-2-1, 10 KOs) stopped Venezuelan challenger Juan Jose Landaeta (27-8-2, 21 KOs) at the end of the 11th round.
The Japanese fighter dropped his opponent twice in the 9th, once in the 10th and twice more in the 11th before Landaeta retired after the round.