By Takahiro Onaga

To kick off the month of November Japanese fans at the Korakuen Hall got the latest Japanese title fight and saw 140lb champion Hiroki Okada (14-0, 10) record the 6th defense of his title. The heavy handed Okada, who won the title back in 2014 with a win over Masayoshi Kotake, was up against veteran challenger Valentine Hosokawa (20-6-3, 9), who had previously come up short in bouts for the Japanese and OPBF title, losing to Shinya Iwabuchi and Min Wook Kim in those bouts.

From the off it was clear that the 35 year old Hosokawa was looking to do all he could to make it 3rd time lucky and he applied the pressure from the off, forcing Okada to to uncomfortably fight back at a high pace. The champion appeared to have the edge in power but could never use that power to gain Hosokawa's respect and instead Hosokawa was in his face, throwing combinations and giving the champion nightmares.

Although Hosokawa forced the pace Okada did land his jab with consistency and occasionally followed it with a booming right hand, but never did enough to back Hosokawa off for long with the challenger straight back in to the pocket.

In Japan we use open scoring and after 5 rounds the judges had Okada in a comfortable lead, with scores of 50-45, twice, and 49-45. They were scores that seemed confusing, and failed to credit Hosokawa for out landing the champion and for forcing the champion to back up, regularly. In fact if anything it seemed like the judges had been giving the rounds to the wrong man with Hosokawa looking like the man who should have been in the lead.

Knowing that he was down seemed to fire up Hosokawa more and he roared out for round 6 pressing action with even more intensity, backing the champion against the ropes and letting his hands go. With the previous rounds having been scored to Okada's it seemed clear Hosokawa was trying to impress the judges. He continued with the same attitude in rounds 7 and 8 before seemingly hurting Okada in round 9 with the challenger beginning to see a stoppage as a viable possibility for the final round. Okada was tired, cut and saw his cuts worsened by a headclash in the early stages of the round. Despite that the champion stood and traded blows in the final round, the best round of the fight, as he made it to the final bell.

Having done so much in the second half of the fight it seemed implausible not to give Hosokawa some rounds. Sadly though the judges didn't give him close to what he deserved, scoring the final result 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92.

With the win Okada scored the 6th defence of his title and will retain his WBO world ranking. The challenger however will have to wonder what he needed to do to impress the judges today.