Masamichi Yabuki stopped Angel Ayala in the 12th round to claim the IBF flyweight title in an absolute bloodbath.
The pair collided at the Aichi Sky Expo Arena in Tokoname, Japan, on Saturday morning.
X @ESPNKnockOutYabuki is now a two-weight world champion and has a nasty cut to show for it[/caption]
Yabuki (18-4) entered the contest fresh off a ninth-round TKO win over South Africa’s Sivenathi Nontshinga for the IBF light flyweight belt and became a two-weight simultaneous world champion by overcoming Ayala in front of an adoring home crowd.
The Japanese puncher got off to a flying start by dropping his adversary with a perfectly timed check left hook in the final ten seconds of the opening stanza.
Ayala found his way back to his feet, but was sent tumbling to the canvas again in the second round courtesy of a clubbing right hand.
He dusted himself off and got back to work again, but shortly after, an accidental clash of heads opened cuts below and above the respective right eyes of Yabuki and Ayala.
Yabuki walked into the ring with a pair of pristine white shorts on, but by the end of the fight, they had been painted with claret.
Both men entered the final frame with crimson masks and laid it all on the line down the home straight.
All three judges had Yabuki up 109-98 going into the 12th, and Ayala knew he needed a stoppage to get his hand raised.
The brave Mexican trudged forward in pursuit of the knockout, but with 90 seconds left in the round, he walked onto a big right hand that sank him to his knees.
Ayala regained his footing on unsteady legs and was battered by a flurry of shots against the ropes as the referee stepped in and waved off the fight.
The former champion was left perplexed by the stoppage, but it was a fair and compassionate move from the third man in the ring, Katsuhiko Nakamura.
X @ESPNKnockOutAyala’s face was also painted red by a cut above his right eye[/caption]
X @ESPNKnockOutYabuki dropped Ayala three times and stopped him in the 12th round[/caption]
X @ESPNKnockOutHis adoring home crowd leapt to their feet when the referee stepped in[/caption]
The defeat marked the first of Ayala’s career, with his record falling to 18-1.
Yabuki, meanwhile, improves to 18-4 and now finds himself in a strong position to campaign for a trilogy bout with pound-for-pound No. 10-rated fighter and WBC and WBA flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji.
The pair first met in September 2021 for Teraji’s WBC light flyweight title.
Yabuki authored one of the biggest upsets of the year as he derailed Teraji’s dominant four-year reign with a tenth-round TKO win.
Six months later, Teraji exacted his revenge by flattening Yabuki with a dynamite right hand in the third round of their rematch.
Yabuki remains the only man to have beaten Teraji (25-1) to this day.
