Pictured: Hinata Maruta


Earlier today, two title bouts featuring fighters not currently ranked by TTR which may impact TTR's rankings took place in Tokyo. The winners of those bouts were Hinata Maruta, who dethroned defending Japanese featherweight champion Ryo Sagawa, and Yudai Shigeoka, who captured the vacant Japanese Youth light flyweight title.

The featherweight matchup, which had been postponed because of the pandemic, was highly anticipated. The 23-year-old Maruta, the JBC's #1 ranked contender, owns wins over Jason Canoy and Tsuyoshi Tameda while the 26-year-old Sagawa's slate includes victories over fellow world-ranked contenders Reiya Abe (currently IBF #11, WBC #21) and Ryo Matsumoto (IBF #14).

Japanese Featherweight Title-
Hinata Maruta (WBC #32; 11-1-1, 9 KOs)
TKO-7 2:57
Champion Ryo Sagawa (WBC #9, IBF #10; 10-2, 5 KOs)
- Maruta (JBC #1, OPBF #3) was leading by the scores of 48-47, 48-47, and 49-47 after 5 rounds.
- Sagawa (OPBF #1) had a strong sixth round but was dropped in round 7. He beat the count but was battered until the referee mercifully called a halt to the bout.

There was great interest in the light flyweight contest as well. In just his second pro outing, Shigeoka, 23, had outpointed world-ranked OPBF strawweight champion Lito Dante (IBF #6, WBC #13) in a non-title bout while the 20-year-old Horikawa, in his third pro bout, had fought defending WBO Youth junior flyweight champ Xiang Li (WBO #14, WBC #34) to a ten-round draw.

Vacant Japanese Youth Light Flyweight Title-
Yudai Shigeoka (WBC #16 at 105; 3-0, 2 KOs)
TKO-5 2:42
Ryu Horikawa (3-1-1, 1 KO)
- Shigeoka (OPBF #3 at 105) floored Horikawa in round 4 and round 5.