Akifumi Shimoda collects impressive 10th round knockout win over Azael Gonzalez – Boxing News
Akifumi Shimoda, the former WBA world super bantamweight champion, collected an easy and authoritative 10th technical round knockout win over his recent opponent, the Mexican proud, Azael Gonzalez, in a 10-round non-title bout held on April 16, 2012.
The duo met at the ring stretched at Korakuen Hall situated in Tokyo, Japan and the event was promoted by Akihiko Honda of Teiken Promotions. Shimoda- Gonzalez bout headlined the event and the pay-per-view was co-headlined by the non-title 10-round battle
between Yoshihiro Kamegai and Alfredo Chavez.
The odds, even before the bout, were clearly in favour of the Japanese sensation who emphatically resides in the top 10 world featherweight rankings and has proudly held the Japanese and OPBF super bantamweight titles.
Shimoda, 27, was entering in his career’s 29th bout and boasted 25 wins with 11 of them via knockout. The southpaw pugilist was coming from an impressive rather authoritative 10-round unanimous win over Jonel Alibio.
The Japanese proud was making a comeback after his loss to Rico Ramos, a bout in which he lost his recently acquired WBA gold. His Monday night opponent, Azael, 25, was in his 23rd career bout and boasted wins over just eight opponents, three of them via
knockout.
The Mexican was no threat at all since he did not had any kind of advantage or upper hand over the favourite Shimoda. Akifumi was brawling in front of his hometown crowd above all he was a southpaw – a left-handed jab thrower as compared to Azael’s orthodox
stance.
Furthermore, things became more difficult for Gonzalez when his resume was compared with Shimoda’s. Akifumi boasted a decent win ratio and knockout proficiency but Azael, on the contrary, presented a resume tarnished with 14 losses and four of them via knockout.
During the whole 10-round showdown, Akifumi set the pace and did not allow Azael to throw any substantial powerful jabs. During the fifth round, an inadvertent head-to-head collision busted open Shimoda’s forehead and blood started to gush out.
Akifumi did not lose his grip and continued battering Gonzalez with more force so as to end the matter as soon as possible but the Mexican’s resilience came in to aid him and though he was unable to throw and connect maximum punches yet he kept on taking
the punishment and still maintained his senses.
After the passage of just one minute of the last round, Azael got exhausted so much so that he fell on the ground and his teammates moved in requesting for the bout to be halted.
This will be Akifumi’s second win after his loss to Rico whereas Gonzalez has further tarnished his resume by collecting his career’s 15th loss. At the moment, Azael has five losses in his last five bouts and seriously needs to revamp his brawling style
and mend his deficiencies.
Tags: