By Jake Donovan

Not even the dilemma of struggling to make weight and fighting on the road managed to faze Jezreel Corrales. 

Barely a day after requiring multiple attempts to boil down to the super featherweight limit, the visiting boxer from Panama pulled off a stunner in knocking out long-reigning champ Takashi Uchiyama in two rounds Wednesday evening in Japan. 

With the win, Corrales becomes the recognized World Boxing Association super featherweight champ, as part of the sanctioning body's title consolidation process. 

There has been considerable buzz in recent weeks of the 36-year old Uchiyama being ripe for the taking. Bettors certainly believed so, as odds plummeted from 15-1 all the way down to 5-1 shortly before the opening bell.

Concern over whether Corrales would be the man for the job arose when he missed weight by nearly a full pound in his first trip to the scales during Tuesday's pre-fight win. A two-hour sauna session, followed by a second attempt to make weight was met with the 24-year old southpaw being forced to strip down to his bare essentials in order to come within the 130-pound limit. 

Whatever energy and fluids were lost during the session were replenished during fight day meals, providing enough strength to pull off one of the year's first big upsets. 

Action was slow out the gate, not uncommon for the well-preserved Uchiyama, who earlier this year celebrated his six-year anniversary as champion. Ten successful defenses have been spread out over that stretch, partially due to injury but also in line with his preference to fight twice per year, 

The formula has worked as he's outlasted the rest of the field, but the writing was on the wall for his lengthy reign to soon come to a close. 

Corrales made sure to take care of that problem the moment he saw an opening. Uchiyama had only been down twice before in his career, but would add three to that tally in the span of less than six minutes. The power surge was capped by a sweeping left hand shot that put Uchiyama flat on his back. 

No count was rendered on the final knockdown, as referee Robert Hoyle waved off the fight at 2:59 of round two. 

The knockout win adds to the Cinderella story that Corrales has enjoyed during his entire rise to the top. The 24-year old has been placed on the back burner for much of his career, suffering his lone loss in just his second pro fight and never given the recognition his skill set deserves. 

A 19-fight win streak goes a long way towards commanding that respect, as does claiming a win over the world's best super featherweight. It's an honor that Corrales can now claim as he improves to 20-1 (8KOs). 

Uchiyama's six-year, three-month stay as a super featherweight champ comes to a close. No longer intact is his unbeaten record, as he falls to 24-1-1 (20KOs). His reign began with a 12th round knockout of Juan Carlos Salgado way back in Jan. '10, also scoring stoppage victories over the likes of Jorge Solis, Takashi Miura and Bryan Vasquez along the way.

Miura and Vasquez went on to claim titles after their respective losses, but with both suffering defeats while Uchiyama remained at the top. Wednesday's shocker now adds him to the list of former champions. 

Corrales entered as the WBA interim titlist, while Uchiyama was identified as the super champ. The latter label now applies to Corrales' reign, with the WBA likely to mandate a final title consolidation bout within the division later this fall.

Javier Fortuna is the current "regular" champion and actually passed on the chance to face Uchiyama. The unbeaten Dominican was first offered the opportunity, as the WBA ordered the fight earlier, only to insert Corrales into the picture when Fortuna's team agreed to allow the Panamanian to jump the line. 

It was a missed opportunity, as Fortuna now has to travel a much tougher road to retain title status. He will eventually be ordered to face Corrales, but is currently being groomed for a title defense versus Jamel Herring, an unbeaten lightweight and a decorated U.S. Marine veteran who served as team captain of the 2012 U.S. Olympic boxing squad.

Herring has already agreed to terms and begun training to shed weight the right way as he will have to drop down to super featherweight. Fortuna's team has yet to respond since the initial offer was made to the American contender and even if he reverses course, he will still have to face Corrales in order to avoid being stripped. 

Should a Fortuna-Herring bout transpire, the winner will then have to face Corrales to complete the super featherweight consolidation process. 

Until then, Corrales can take pride in his newfound status as the de facto leader of the super featherweight division. 

The bout aired via tape delay on TV Tokyo. Also on the show:

  • Kohei Kono recorded the third defense of his super flyweight title in a 12-round whitewash of Thailand's Inthanon Sithchamuang, Scores were 119-106 across the board for Kono (32-8-1, 13KOs), who fought for the first time since his thrilling decision win over Koki Kameda last October in the United States.

  • Ryoichi Taguchi (24-2-1, 11KOs) retained his junior flyweight title - also in his third defense - with an 11th round stoppage of veteran southpaw Juan Jose Landaeta. Taguchi has now won six in a row since a decision loss to Naoya Inoue, the only pro boxer to go the distance with the two-division world champion.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow him on his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2