TOKYO — Japan’s Yoshiki Takei beat Australian defending champion Jason Moloney by unanimous decision to win the WBO bantamweight world title at the Tokyo Dome.
Fighting on the undercard of undisputed super-bantamweight world champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue’s title fight against Mexico’s Luis Nery, Takei started strongly before Moloney came back into the bout in his second title defence.
But the Japanese fighter, a former kickboxer who had won all eight of his previous boxing matches by knockout, took the title in front of a raucous crowd at the 45,000-plus seater venue.
“The 12th round was a real struggle,” said the 27-year-old Takei.
“I wanted to win by knock-out but Moloney was really tough. I knew he was strong before the fight and I trained really hard because of that — it’s thanks to Moloney that I was able to toughen up,” he said according to AFP.
