TBS: Kazuto Ioka vs. Jeyvier Jesús Cintrón Ocasio & Kōsei Tanaka vs. Wulan Tuolehazi RBR

Round 5

Cintrón whipping out a fast right hook on the body. Ioka twists away to mitigate it, but keeps marching forward. Ioka waving his fists in the air ready to catch and parry. Cintrón, however, is able to accurately thread his needle's-eye with a shimmy-shake and then a three-piece of straights on the face. Ioka with big combinations on the body, and now finding the jaw of Cintrón with strapping rights up top as the challenger begins to drop his guard to cover his midsection, and his movement slows. Ioka with several unanswered body shots buffering each salvo from Cintrón, usually roped out while on the backfoot.

10-9 Ioka

48-47 Ioka

 

Round 6

Scooping right hook on the chin by Cintrón before circling off. Cintrón is tossing lefts at the face and then backing away. Pawing right jabs into the guard by Cintrón before jogging, now clockwise, now counter. Ioka moves in on him inexorably, starting each attack with a left hook downstairs and then bracing himself with a right up top before curling his back and bowing in to work the body some more, often landing 4-5 power shots down there before Cintrón is able to pull up his stakes and depart the strike zone.

10-9 Ioka

58-56 Ioka

 

Round 7

Cintrón is keeping Ioka on the outer tip of his right jab, kissing him on the lips with the fore-knuckles, gently but with just enough force to deny Ioka passage head-on. Ioka now has a noticeably bloodied lip. Cintrón is ducking and rolling out from the pocket every time Ioka tries putting combos together, and is controlling the action with the busy southpaw jab at long range, sometimes mixing in deterrent lefts when given the room to unfurl them.

10-9 Cintrón

67-66 Ioka

 

Round 8

Cintrón is jabbing and backing away, not taking enough chances to actually touch Ioka. Cintrón getting backed into corners and hit with right hands even as he skips around hastily with a smattering of lateral dashes to ensure he isn't a stationary target. Ioka moves in and claps him with a few body shots, one straying low, and Cintrón at that moment scoots his rear foot under the bottom rope and trips on the tented ring advert on the apron, and goes down, correctly ruled not a knockdown. Ioka chases Cintrón the rest of the round, forcing him to bend over to duck hooks and then pounding him on the sides while he's thus indisposed.

10-9 Ioka

77-75 Ioka

 

Round 9

Cintrón is no longer jabbing as he goes, conserving energy to run. Ioka bulldozes him into the ropes and Cintrón unsuccessfully tries converting a right-handed push-away into a short hook, but lacks the leverage and instead just sort of brushes Ioka's hair awkwardly, while Ioka clatters both fists off Cintrón's ribs. Tony Weeks is warning them for head clashes in the pocket, mostly the result of Cintrón doubling over and getting hung on an invisible clothesline when Ioka works him over downstairs. Ioka now landing the right hand up top regularly as well, catching the challenger as he backs up in straight lines. Huge left hook downstairs by Ioka, then a stiff leaping up-jab that snaps back the head of Cintrón.

10-9 Ioka, dominant

87-84 Ioka

 

Round 10

Cintrón is pumping out double jabs and not landing any, very perfunctory. Ioka dipping his lead shoulder in, veering aside, whamming the stomach of Cintrón. The arms of Cintrón dropping continuously - and Ioka finds the opening he was seeking, hurting Cintrón very badly with a line drive right on the chin! Staggering around, Cintrón is able to get both arms draped around Ioka, holding on until Weeks forces a break. Ioka rips his way in with a straight right and left hook combo beneath the guard and Cintrón, gasping, is forced to clinch again. Cintrón all defense now, maneuvering away with as much hustle as he dares with that emptying tank, his long-legged gait becoming unsteadier, hugging the ropes, mouth-breathing, hands-down.

10-9 Ioka

97-93 Ioka

 

Round 11

Cintrón is starting to jab when Ioka rushes in to him, sidesteps, and lands a right before the jab has even left its hangar. Pause to fix a glove issue. Time in. Cintrón is squatting away into a toilet-sitting posture, showing the right jab, straightening into a southpaw Philly shell to circle away. Ioka moves in and eats a BIG left uppercut (causing the Japanese commentators to exclaim "wowowow!") but isn't phased. Ioka backhanding up a left jab to make Cintrón flinch away or duck and then pursuing him with overhand rights wherever he puts his skull, then unloading as many body shots as he can for the moment that Cintrón is dazed if and when those rights do land. Cintrón bounces a couple of right jabs off Ioka's forehead while circling away. Ioka with a series of hard straight rights thumping Cintrón on the chest and face. Sweeping right hook by Cintrón.

10-9 Ioka, close

107-102 Ioka

 

Round 12

Cintrón again needs his glove re-taped. Bizarre. What is his corner doing wrong? Anyway, time in. Ioka slipping jabs expertly, showing really phenomenal head movement for it being this late in the fight (and having been the constant aggressor walking down an unwilling combatant for a large swath of that previous eleven rounds) and landing body shots. Very disorganized stuff from Cintrón, throwing desperation southpaw 1-2s and butterfly net right hooks while hopping all over the ring on his toes erratically, seemingly unsure where he wants or intends to go (except away from Ioka). Simply wild stuff now from Cintrón, both feet coming up off the canvas by a few inches as he launches himself at Ioka with superman lefts, but Ioka remains composed, blocking or slipping as necessary, and keeps up his steady tortoise's work, shredding the haunches of the March hare.

10-9 Ioka

117-111 Ioka

 

There's no way Ioka didn't win this. At this point, for him to lose would have required giving the visitor the benefit of the doubt in every close round and giving him a gift over a legend in his own home country.

 

Official cards:

116-112
116-113
115-113

UD for Ioka

 

Cintrón managed to somehow look expectantly hopeful during the scorecard reading.

No, dude, you did alright, were competitive in about half the rounds, arguably won anywhere from 3-5 of them, but you absolutely didn't win 7. Hold your head up high for busting up Ioka's face and pushing him as hard as you did, but ...don't walk away thinking you got robbed here.

 

By, like, so much. To put that in analogous terms in the USA that would be like comparing the recognition and popularity of Mayweather to Crawford.

 

Come on, man...he put on a body punching clinic. He realized from early on that Cintrón held some major tale-of-tape and foot-speed advantages, so he didn't even headhunt all that much - and when he did he wasn't exactly wasteful. He landed plenty of neck-stiffeners for how much of a negative bitch Cintrón was being (throughout really, after the first three, but especially for pretty much the whole second half of the fight).

As far as Cintrón rounds, you and I were simpatico in 1, 2 and 7 - and I did annotate both 3 & 11 as "close"...so I can definitely see it 115-113 Ioka.

But man, how the hell did you see round twelve for Cintrón?? (at least I assume you did, since you'd posted 6-5 Ioka heading in, and then had it a draw)

He straight up fled, like a skittish jackrabbit for three minutes, and didn't touch Ioka with anything but soft leave-me-be jabs. The power shots he threw were ridiculously sloppy and none of them connected.