Farenas fight ends in draw; Jaro loses title

Michael Fareñas of the Peñalosa Boxing stable failed to dethrone undefeated WBA world superfeatherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama (18W-0L, 15 KOs) of Japan when theeir title fight ended in a technical draw in Saitama, Japan yesterday.

According to a report posted on fightnews.com by Joe Koizumi, a wide and deep laceration caused by an accidental clash of heads at 1:15 of the third round led to the fight stoppage.

This was the fourth career draw for Fareñas (34W-3L-4D, 26 KOs) who is the reigning Philippine featherweight champion. He was moving up in weight for this title shot. Uchiyama (18W-0L-2D, 14 KOs) retained his title.

Meanwhile, Sonny Boy Jaro of Silay City, Negros Occidental lost his WBC flyweight championship belt to Japanese challenger Toshiyuki Igarashi after twelve hard fought rounds by split decision in a fight held yesterday in Saitama, Japan.

The scores were 116-112, 115-113 for Igarashi and one judge had it 116-112 for Jaro. Japanese boxing writer Joe Koizumi reported on fightnews.com that  the southpaw Japanese challenger who is a former Olympian managed to cope with the wild-swinging Filipino.

This was the first defense of Jaro, who won the title last March with an upset 6th round TKO win over Pongsaklek Wonjongkam in Thailand. His record dropped to 34W-11L-5D, 24 KOs while Igarashi improved to 16W-1L-1D, 10 KOs.