A Night of New Champions in Osaka! Taiga Imanaga and Toshiya Ishii Capture OPBF Crowns

OSAKA, Japan – In a thrilling boxing event held this Sunday, June 7th, at the Sumiyoshi Hall in Osaka, promotional outfit MUTO presented a spectacular fight card that shook up the rankings of the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF), a WBC-affiliated organization, crowning two new monarchs in high-intensity battles.

Imanaga Dethrones Nakazato in a Tactical War

In the main event for the OPBF Lightweight Championship, number-one ranked contender Taiga Imanaga became the new champion after defeating now-former monarch Shuma Nakazato via majority decision (MD).

It was a highly contested, purely strategic clash that came down to the judges’ scorecards after ten rounds. While judge Masato Umemura scored the bout a 95-95 draw, Tetsuya Iida (96-94) and Junji Noda (97-93) tipped the scales in favor of Imanaga, awarding him a well-deserved victory that cements him as the new name to watch at 135 pounds in the region. The matchup was refereed by Masahiro Noda and overseen by supervisor Tsuyoshi Yasukochi.

Ishii Dominates and Stops Yamasaki via 5th-Round TKO in Super Welterweight

Meanwhile, the OPBF super bantamweight division found a new ruler in number-three ranked Toshiya Ishii, who put on a display of power by stopping number-two ranked Kaito Yamasaki via technical knockout (TKO) in the fifth round.

Ishii took control from the opening bell, wearing down Yamasaki until referee Nobuto Ikehara halted the action at the 2-minute, 46-second mark of round five to protect the fighter’s integrity. With this definitive triumph, Ishii claims the vacant divisional championship to the delight of the Osaka crowd.

Both bouts were backed by the official OPBF ring officials and reaffirm the extraordinary momentum of Asian boxing, positioning both Imanaga and Ishii on the doorstep of the major WBC world rankings.