Bornea, Leon lose in Japan

FILIPINO pugs Jake Bornea and Landy Cris Leon lost their respective fights in the undercard of the bantamweight world title unification bout between World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight king Naoya Inoue and World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight champion Paul Butler on Dec. 13 at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.

Bornea was stopped by Takuma Inoue in the eighth round of a scheduled 10-round contest.

Referee Katsuhiko waved off the bout in the 2:48 mark after suffering a huge gash on his left eyebrow.

Takuma, the brother of Naoya, overwhelmed Bornea with his swarming combinations. Bornea suffered a cut in the seventh round and it worsened in the following round which caused the stoppage.

Bornea dropped to 14-4-1 with seven knockouts, while Takuma, a one-time world title challenger, improved to 17-1 with four knockouts.

On the other hand, battle-scarred veteran Leon was stopped by Satoshi Shimizu in the second round.

Leon quit on his stool and didn’t answer the third round.

Leon fell to 14-23-5 with six knockouts, while Shimizu is now 11-1 with 10 knockouts.

In the main event, Naoya (24-0, 21 KOs) totally dominated Butler (34-3, 15 KOs) and knocked him out in the 11th round.

Naoya is now a unified bantamweight champion. /