By Hisao Adachi

This past Saturday in the city of Nagoya in Japan, the unbeaten flyweight world champion of the World Boxing Organization (WBO), Kosei Tanaka (14-0, 8 KOs, 23 years old), made the second defense of his title with a seventh round knockout win over mandatory challenger Jonathan "Bomba" González.

Gonzalez did very well in the fight, but everything fell apart when he was dropped three times in the seventh. Heading into the final round of the fight, Gonzalez was winning the bout with scores of 58-54, 57-54 and 56-56.

After the fight in his dressing room, the defeated Gonzalez explained - "I was able to get up from my first knockdown in the third round to continue the fight, but in the seventh round it was different and I felt a real hard shot from Tanaka to my belly. Tanaka's attack on my abdominal region took away everything from me, from being able to execute my game plan. This was my destiny, since God did not want me to be world champion."

Tanaka was not pleased with his own performance.

He struggled at times with the style of Gonzalez. He dropped Gonzalez in the third, but the Puerto Rican boxer sent him down in the fourth.

"I think that the performance in the fight was very bad for me, even if I did win by knockout. To tell you the truth, at the beginning of August, I had a cold and suffered from a high fever for a week, which affected me badly to dedicate myself more carefully to decrease my weight and unexpectedly it took me a long time to lower my weight to the limit," Tanaka explained.

"It was my carelessness to maintain my physical conditions, because I could not prepare well in the final moments for this fight with Jonathan Gonzalez."

Tanaka argues that - "During the fight, I knew I was losing on the judges' scorecardss, but, despite everything, I always had confidence in the ring in knocking out my opponent with my combative skills, with the destructiveness of my punches. I would launch into the attack with everything to deliver to the fullest degree.

Tanaka then explained that he really wants to face the other world champions in the weight division, before considering a move up in weight to pursue a fourth world title.