Gonzalez takes flyweight crown from Yaegashi

Tokyo, Japan (SportsNetwork.com) – Roman Gonzalez of Nicaragua remained unbeaten with a ninth-round TKO of Japan’s Akira Yaegashi to capture the WBC flyweight title on Friday.

Gonzalez floored Yaegashi in the third round, then sent him to the canvas again in the ninth with an uppercut. Referee Michael Griffin stopped the bout at the 2:24 mark.

Yaegashi, who trailed on all three cards before the stoppage, was making his fourth title defense and fell to 20-4. He earned the belt in April 2013 with a unanimous decision against Toshiyuki Igarashi.

Gonzalez improved to 40-0 with 34 knockouts. He was a previous titleholder in light flyweight and minimumweight classes.

Also Friday, Naoya Inoue of Japan retained his WBC light flyweight crown with an 11th-round TKO of Thailand’s Samartlek Kokietgym.

Inoue scored knockdowns in the fourth and sixth rounds before the fight was stopped at the 1:08 mark of the 11th. He improved to 7-0 with six knockouts and was making his first title defense after winning the belt in April with a sixth-round TKO of Adrian Hernandez.

Kokietgym fell to 17-5.

Categorized in: Boxing