Juiki Tatsuyoshi overcame a hand injury to earn his latest win.

The second-generation boxer turned away a stiff challenge from Yuki Yonaha en route to an eight-round, majority decision.

Judge Tomohiro Imamura (76-76) had the fight even. The scorecard was overruled by judges Nobuto Ikehara (77-75) and Hisatoshi Miyazaki (77-75), who both had Tatsuyoshi winning five of the eight rounds in a bout just above the bantamweight limit Tuesday at EDION Arena in Osaka, Japan.

The briskly-paced action fight saw Tatsuyoshi jump out to a strong start, using his height and superior jab to control the pace versus his countryman.

Yonaha picked up steam in round three, around which time Osaka’s Tatsuyoshi believed he injured his hand. The 33-year-old Yonaha fought through a bloody nose to land power shots, though he overcommitted to and often fell short with his right uppercut.

Tatsuyoshi also saw his nose bloodied but gathered his composure and offered a discipline attack over the back half of the fight. His combination punching and 30-second drill flurries near the end of every round ultimately made an impression on the judges in a tightly contested affair, though Yonaha (13-6-1, 8KOs) was game throughout.

The win was just the second for Tatsuyoshi (15-0-1, 10KOs)—the son of famed former WBC bantamweight titlist Joichiro Tatsuyoshi—since a November 2020 draw. Tuesday’s win marked just the third time he was forced beyond the fifth round. All three occasions went the eight-round distance.

It remains to be seen how the hand injury will impact pre-fight plans to remain far more active in 2024.

Tatsuyoshi-Yonaha opened a four-fight ESPN+ stream that featured two major title fights. Headlining the show, two-time and reigning junior flyweight king Kenshiro Teraji (22-1, 14KOs) defends his lineal and unified WBC/WBA championship versus WBA mandatory challenger and former interim titlist Carlos Canizales (26-1-1, 19KOs).

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox