Jerusalem whips Shigeoka, retains WBC crown

Filipino Melvin Jerusalem defeated Yudai Shigeoka on a 12-round unanimous decision on Sunday to keep his World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight crown for the second time at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokomane, Japan.

The scores read: 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112

Unlike in their first meeting last year in Nagoya where Jerusalem scored two knockdowns, there was not even a single one in the rematch.

But it was still a dominating showing by Jerusalem, who raised his win-loss record to 24-3 with 12 knockouts. The defeat dropped Shigeoka’s slate to 9-2 with five knockouts.

After a feeling-out first round, both fighters turned aggressive in the second canto, and this was the chance for Jerusalem to land his favorite right straights to the Japanese’ face.

While Jerusalem could not produce a knockdown this time, he did enough to earn the decision from judges Joseph Gwilt of England, Chris Tellez of the United States and Tawuth Pluemsamran of Thailand.

Shigeoka attempted to dominate Jerusalem but he could not sustain his aggressiveness as he got caught with numerous rights in the crossfire.

By the ninth round, his nose was emitting crimson and it may have compelled him to admit that there was no way he could turn the fight around as Jerusalem hardly showed any signs of slowing down.

When the final bell sounded, Jerusalem, 31, raised his hands in triumph while the southpaw Shigeoka, 27, bowed his head, apparently convinced that he had just failed in his mission to get even.

The lopsided scores proved that was the case.

There were a couple of rounds that Shigeoka may have won but they were not as dominant as Jerusalem’s rounds as he was oftentimes backing away each time an assault was taking place.

Joining Jerusalem in the celebration were his chief trainer Michael Domingo and promoter JC Mananquil and even JC Barrera of Blow-By-Blow, who flew in from Manila to lend his support.