44-year-old-champ-ikeyamaPhotos by Boxing Beat –

Article by Joe Koizumi –

A female world title twinbill took place on Saturday in Osaka, Japan, with a couple of Japanese girls emerging victorious as new champions.

44-year-old Japanese Nao Ikeyama (14-3-1, 4 KOs), 102, became the WBO’s first 102-pound champ as she put on an incredibly fast pace and battered previously unbeaten Filipino southpaw Jessebelle Pagaduan (6-1, 4 KOs), 102, from pillar to post en route to a lopsided decision (99-91 twice and 98-92) in an elimination bout for ten hot rounds.

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Ikeyama, a middle-aged woman whom the Japanese commission (JBC) had made promise to retire upon a defeat before the bout, became a Fighting Harada, as she kept throwing punches so continually in every round entirely in the combat. Where did the 44-year-old lady’s abundant stamina come from? Though the hard-punching Pagaduan dominated the opening session by a slight margin, Ikeyama fully opened her engine from the second round onward, whipping and battering the game opponent upstairs and downstairs thereafter. Danrex Tapadasan, a good referee from the Philippines, might have stopped the one-sided contest early especially in round nine when Ikeyama so incessantly kept punching the fading foe with an effective two-fisted attack.

http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/ikeyama-kuroki-win-wbo-102lb-wbc-105lb-female-belts-246236