WBO flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka 15-0 (9) successfully defended his world championship for the third time with a savage third round knockout of China’s Wulan Tuolehazi 13-4-1 (6) at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday night.
Fighting on the undercard of the WBO super flyweight world title fight between champion Kazuto Ioka and challenger Jeyvier Cintron, the 24-year-old champion landed a right uppercut followed by two left uppercuts that laid out Tuolehazi for the full 10-count at the official time of 2:29.
Tuolehazi remained on the canvas for around two minutes before making it back to his stool. It was the 26-year-old’s first fight outside of his native China.
“I was able to land that uppercut after a feint to the body,” said Tanaka, who has previously held both the WBO minimumweight and junior flyweight world titles.
The victory caps off a stellar year for Tanaka, who was making the third title defence of the crown he lifted from Sho Kimura in September 2018.
Back in March, Tanaka turned back the challenge of former WBA and IBF junior flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi and in August he scored a come-from-behind knockout of Jonathan Gonzalez in the seventh round.
Other results on the card saw WBO female super flyweight champion Miyo Yoshia 14-1 retain her title with a unanimous decision win over Li Ping Shi 5-3 (2) by scores of 99-90, 97-92 and 98-91 over 10 two-minute rounds.
The upset of the night belonged to Filipino journeyman Jhunriel Ramonal 17-8-6 (10) who knocked out Yusaku Kuga 19-4-1 (13) in the first round with a powerful overhand right. The official time of the stoppage was 1:24.
The dangerous Ramonal, 30, was having his second straight fight in Japan after previously stopping favourite Shingo Wake in three rounds in October.
 successfully defended his world championship for the third time with a savage third round knockout of China’s Wulan Tuolehazi 13-4-1 (6) at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday night.){kind=link}