Chris John pins Shoji Kimura to defend WBA Super World featherweight title – Boxing news
Chris John, the WBA Super World featherweight champion, successfully defended his title for the fourth consecutive time and collected a unanimous decision win over Shoji Kimura, the former Japanese super bantamweight champion, in a 12-round bout held on
May 5, 2012.
The ring for the bout was set up at Marina Bay Sands Hotel situated in Singapore and the event was promoted by Raja Saptaoktohari and Angelo Hyder of Dragon Fire Promotions.
The Indonesian proud, Chris, 32, was entering in his 49th career bout and boasted a huge undefeated win streak with 46 wins and just two draw decisions. He has never lost even a single bout and collected 22 of his total wins by knocking the opponent out
cold.
John, also known as ‘The Dragon’ or ‘The Tiger’, grabbed his WBA super world featherweight title from Rocky Juarez and since then has successfully defended it against Fernando David Saucedo, Daud Cino Yordan, and Stanyslav Merdov.
This was his fourth title defence bout and the orthodox Chris overshadowed Japanese Shoji Kimura in almost all the aspects. Shoji, 34, has been in a total 30 bouts and emerged victorious in 24.
The former several times Japanese super bantamweight champion, Kimura, has pinned just nine of his opponents by knockout and seriously lacks the ability to throw a raw powered jab.
During the whole 12-round showdown, Kimura though connected punches every now and then yet was unable to inflict maximum damage. The mental presence and stiffness of the champion Chris allowed him to retaliate at the very same time by throwing almost double
the number of jabs produced by Shoji.
It was during the seventh round, when Kimura rattled John by a huge jab that connected the latter’s gut and confused him for a while. The whole crowd got stunned since one more powerful hook by Kimura and the bout would definitely had been over.
But the resilient Chris recuperated swiftly and leashed his second wave of attack which continued till the end of the 12th round. After winning the bout by 109-118, 109-118, and 110-117 scores, even Chris admitted that the shock from the jab was substantive.
John remarked, “Yes, it was a big shock. I needed time, I did well to recover. I’m happy I could show what I had. I couldn’t knock him out, but I displayed my good performance to entertain the audience.”
Kimura, after collecting his fifth career loss stated, “Chris John was much stronger than I had expected—physically and technically. He threw all punches with no motion. No telephone punches at all. It’s difficult to avert his sharp and persistent combination.”
Chris now has 47 wins in his resume and has proudly not only defended the title but also his huge win streak.
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