Takuma Inoue successfully retained his WBA bantamweight title with the ninth round stoppage of Jerwin Ancajas.
It was a double whammy for the Filipinos on Saturday.
This after Jerwin Ancajas and Jonas Sultan fell prey to their Japanese foes almost in the same fashion at the historic Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Coming in as a slight favorite, Takuma Inoue lived up to expectations after beating Ancajas by way of knockout in the ninth round to retain his WBA bantamweight world title.
Takuma, the younger brother of undisputed undisputed super bantamweight world champion Naoya, unleashed a couple of body shots, the last one was a right hook that shook the Filipino bet.
The 32-year-old Ancajas fell down on both his knees, unable to beat the count to absorb his fourth loss in 38 matches.
Inoue improved to 19-1 including five KOs.
Things looked like going Ancajas’ way in the seventh and eighth round. The Filipino pugilist seemed to be thriving in short distances after squeezing in a vicious hook and a straight left heading into the ninth round.
But things went downhill for Ancajas from there.
Earlier, Riku Masuda needed only over two minutes to beat Sultan.
Masuda floored the former world title challenger with a vicious body shot in the opening round to win their eight-round bantamweight bout.
Sultan got back on his feet momentarily but was unable to fight on.