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Lightweights Juk San Lee and
Rusmin Kie Raha didn’t hold
anything back when they squared
off for the vacant World Boxing
Federation (WBF) Asia Pacific
Lightweight title on Sunday,
November 5, in the main event of
a stacked show in Osaka, Japan.
Lee, who´s birth-name is Ryo
Akahori, is residing and
fighting out of South Korea but
was born in Osaka, had the crowd
on his side. However, it would
not be long before the local
fans learned to also appreciate
the efforts of former Indonesian
Champion Kie Raha.
Both men threw caution to the
wind and went for broke, and it
quickly turned into a very
entertaining brawl between
teak-tough warriors. Lee was the
better boxer of the two, but
Raha never stopped trying and
was often effective with his
body-punching.
The first three rounds clearly
belonged to Lee, but as the
fight went on Kie Raha had more
and more success. Lee was more
active though, which probably
secured him some of the rounds
where Kie Raha was relying on
only landing big shots.
In round ten Kie Raha, knowing
he was behind on the cards, gave
it one last big effort to take
things out of the judges hands,
and in the process he was
deducted a point for low-blows.
Lee boxed excellently, and when
the bell sounded to end the
final round he appeared
confident of victory.
And rightly so, as judge Gian
Kapan scored the fight 96-93 in
his favour, while judges Robert
Allanic and Yoshuke Hamada had
it even wider at 97-92 and
99-90. The last two scores
didn’t reflect the
competitiveness of the fight.
Referee in charge of the action
was Kazushi Nishiyama.
Juk San Lee, or Ryo Akahori if
you will, is now 10-5 (1), and
Rusmin Kie Raha goes to 17-16-3
(4). The fight was promoted by
2016 World Boxing Federation
(WBF) Promoter of the Year Kenji
Maki.
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