OPBF 154lb Champ Midorikawa Keeps Belt

By Joe Koizumi

Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Unbeaten ex-kick boxing champ Tsukuru Midorikawa (6-0, 4 KOs), 153.75, impressively kept his OPBF super welter belt when he came off the canvas, dropped Hisashi Kato (13-15-2, 8 KOs), 153.5, back and finally halted him with the referee’s intervention at 2:12 of the seventh round on Friday in Tokyo, Japan. A stout-built 39-year-old Tsukuru seized the regional belt from Nigerian-Japanese Nath Nwachukwu in just thirteen months after his entry into the international style boxing...