By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
WBA#11 Riku Masuda (5-1, 5 KOs), 117.75, scored a one-punch knockout over defending champ Fumiya Fuse (14-4, 3 KOs), 118, at 2:21 of the fourth round to wrest his Japanese bantamweight belt on Thursday in Tokyo, Japan. In a rematch of southpaws, Masuda repeated his triumph over Fuse following his victory by a seventh round kayo in May of the previous year. Masuda failed to win the national belt from Seiya Tsutsumi on points last August, and his conqueror renounced his title to pursue a world title shot. It was Fuse that acquired the vacant belt by stopping Taichi Sugimoto this April. The newly crowned Masuda, whose amateur mark was 52-14, 22 stoppages, is a hard-punching lefty prospect under Teiken Promotions.
Promoter: Dangan Promotions.
The post WBA#11 Masuda dethrones Japanese 118lb champ Fuse appeared first on fightnews.com.