Our knockout of the week today comes from Mexican Christian Medina Jimenez, who provided one of the big surprises of the weekend with a T.K.O. victory over Yoshiki Takei.
Christian Medina Jimenez caused a big surprise in Nagoya: The Mexican defeated the previously unbeaten Yoshiki Takei on the Inoue-Akhmadaliev undercard by T.K.O. in round four to secure the WBO bantamweight world title. Medina (26-4, 19 knockouts) floored the Japanese fighter with a right hook in the first round and dominated the action from then on.
Takei (11-1, 9 knockouts), who had promised his friend Naoya Inoue before the fight that he would “steal the show”, never really got into the fight. Although he briefly showed some momentum at the start of the third round, Medina responded with clear punches – and launched a final attack in the fourth round. Two left hooks and several right uppercuts forced referee Ramon Pena to stop the fight at 1:21.
Medina’s victory brings the title to Guadalajara – just a few hours after compatriot Canelo Álvarez lost his Undisputed title to Terence Crawford. For Japan, Takei’s defeat marks the end of an era for the time being: for the first time since 2019, the Land of the Rising Sun no longer has an active bantamweight world champion.