Yoshiki Takei was once again shown the hard way that life is tough near the top of the bantamweight division.
The unbeaten WBO bantamweight titlist relied on a strong finish to turn away a determined Daigo Higa. Scores were 115-112, 114-113 and 114-113 for Takei in their ESPN+ co-feature Tuesday from Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
The all-Japanese battle between RING contenders proved to be an entertaining appetizer for the Naoya Inoue-TJ Doheny main course.
Yokohoma’s Takei (10-0, 8 knockouts), No.