Eduardo Nunez outpointed Masanori Rikiishi to claim the vacant IBF world super featherweight title on Wednesday at the Buntai in Yokahama, Japan.
“Mexico has a new superstar,” the fighter’s promoter, Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, proclaimed after the victory crowned Nunez as a world champion at 130 pounds.
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Though the winning margin was a comfortable one, the fight itself was anything but, as it went a grueling 12 rounds.
Nunez (28-1, 27 KOs) may have taken a terrifying knockout percentage into the fight, having finished every one of his prior fights in which he’d won, but it was Rikiishi (16-2, 11 KOs) who had passed the greater tests, having fought national and regional-level champions to stand him in good stead for the biggest bout of both fighters’ lives. And so it was little surprise to see Rikiishi pose significant questions to Nunez at the Ohashi Promotions midweek event.
Rikiishi, a southpaw with a wide stance, towered over Nunez, who had a staunch physique, from the opening bell. Nunez connected with solid jabs, while Rikiishi targeted the body and the head with singular shots.
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After timing him with his southpaw jab to the side of Nunez’s jaw, Rikiishi struck him with the straight left before pivoting away. Nunez, though, responded well, and clattered him with his own significant strikes.
Nunez whipped right hooks into Rikiishi’s midsection, kept his gloves high to provide a cushion against that ramrod jab from leftie position, and started to throw punches in bunches as the rounds wore on.
Nunez caught Rikiishi in the second with a nasty right hand over the top — a shot that, perhaps, would have dropped other challengers.
He then posed further problems in the fourth when he fired punches in quick succession. Rikiishi had moments of his own, as he was the more technical boxer with his counterpunches, but each shot he landed seemed to further motivate Nunez to reach a higher gear of his own.
As the fight reached its second half, the boxers fought closer to one another, with Nunez wailing shots to Rikiishi’s body when he had him backed against the ropes. Nunez wobbled Rikiishi once again in the ninth, as the scorecards started to get away from the home fighter.
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The scores varied at the end, but the right man won with Nunez securing a unanimous decision (117-111, 116-112, and 115-113).
With the IBF belt now around his waist, Nunez joins the likes of Lamont Roach (WBA), Emanuel Navarrete (WBO) and O’Shaquie Foster (WBC) as champions in the super featherweight division.
Elsewhere on promoter Hideyuki Ohashi’s card, Yoshoki Takei (11-0, 9 KOs) advanced his unbeaten run with a technical knockout win as he gave Yuttapong Tongdee (15-1, 9 KOs) a first-round bludgeoning to win the WBO world bantamweight title. Tsubasa Narai (16-2, 11 KOs) also finished Yuna Hara (11-4-2, 8 KOs) in the eighth round for Japan’s super featherweight belt.
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