Lightweights Juk San Lee and Rusmin Kie Raha didn’t hold anything back when they squared off for the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) Asia Pacific Lightweight title on Sunday, November 5, in the main event of a stacked show in Osaka, Japan.
Lee, who´s birth-name is Ryo Akahori, is residing and fighting out of South Korea but was born in Osaka, had the crowd on his side. However, it would not be long before the local fans learned to also appreciate the efforts of former Indonesian Champion Kie Raha.
Both men threw caution to the wind and went for broke, and it quickly turned into a very entertaining brawl between teak-tough warriors. Lee was the better boxer of the two, but Raha never stopped trying and was often effective with his body-punching.
The first three rounds clearly belonged to Lee, but as the fight went on Kie Raha had more and more success. Lee was more active though, which probably secured him some of the rounds where Kie Raha was relying on only landing big shots.
In round ten Kie Raha, knowing he was behind on the cards, gave it one last big effort to take things out of the judges hands, and in the process he was deducted a point for low-blows. Lee boxed excellently, and when the bell sounded to end the final round he appeared confident of victory.
And rightly so, as judge Gian Kapan scored the fight 96-93 in his favour, while judges Robert Allanic and Yoshuke Hamada had it even wider at 97-92 and 99-90. The last two scores didn’t reflect the competitiveness of the fight. Referee in charge of the action was Kazushi Nishiyama.
Juk San Lee, or Ryo Akahori if you will, is now 10-5 (1), and Rusmin Kie Raha goes to 17-16-3 (4). The fight was promoted by 2016 World Boxing Federation (WBF) Promoter of the Year Kenji Maki.