Yabuki remains IBF world champion after clear points dominance – John Riel Casimero stops Luis Nery after six knockdowns
Masamichi Yabuki produced a dominant performance to defeat Rene Calixto by an extremely clear unanimous points decision to defend his IBF flyweight world title yesterday at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Japan.
Yabuki (20-4, 18 knockouts) was celebrating his third successful title defense of the IBF belt, which he captured 19 months ago with a round nine stoppage over Sivenathi Nontshinga. Calixto (24-2-1, 10 knockouts) dropped down to the flyweight division for the first time in his career, having previously challenged twice for the IBF super flyweight title against Willibaldo Garcia.
The judges scored the fight 118-108, 118-108 and 116-110.
On the same fight card, John Riel swept Casimero Luis Nery from the ring with a TKO victory in round four in the featherweight division. Nery (37-3, 28 knockouts), however, fell well short of the 124-pound limit and weighed in at 127.4 pounds at the official weigh-in. After a one-hour break, Nery came closer to the limit, but still only weighed in at 127 pounds.
Casimero (36-5-1, 25 knockouts), who easily made the weight limit at 123.4 pounds, was unfazed by the weight disadvantage and picked up a convincing early stoppage win. Nery went down a total of six times in his most disappointing performance to date. The decisive blow finally came from a hard left jab in an uncompromising performance.