Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez Beats Akira Yaegashi

Nicaraguan Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (40-0, 34 KOs, 112 pounds) collected his third world championship, this one at flyweight, when he lopsidedly defeated Akira Yaegashi (20-4, 10 KOs, also 112).

Roman floored him in the third, and followed up by steadily piling up ensuing points. He again decked the bruised and battered champ to halt him at 2:24 of the ninth round, in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday.

Yaegashi didn’t utilize his footwork as expected and surprisingly mixed it, from the second round on, showing great gameness. Yet Gonzalez was a much better boxer than Yaegashi, whose face was puffed and whose left eyebrow was badly swollen due to the Nicaraguan’s accurate, constant and effective combinations.

Before the stoppage, the interim scores were: Steve Morrow and Hubert Minn, both Americans, both seeing it 79-72 and Fernando Barbosa, also from the US, 80-71, all for Gonzalez. The referee was Michael Griffin (Canada).

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