ROCKY Fuentes turned back Hirofumi Mukai of Japan to successfully defend his Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) flyweight title last night in Osaka, Japan.
Fuentes won by unanimous decision for his fourth title defense in his fifth appearance on Japanese soil while Mukai suffered his first career loss and dropped to 5W-1L.
Fuentes (29W-6L-2D, 17 KOs) has made two successful OPBF title defenses in Japan since winning the title by majority decision against Masafumi Okubo in Tokyo last March 9, 2010. His first trip to Japan was in 2006 when he won by split decision over Yuki Nasu in a 10-round non-title bout.
Fuentes, who fights out of the ALA Gym of Cebu, inches closer towards a world title shot as he is highly ranked by the four major boxing sanctioning bodies. /Correspondent Rene Bonsubre Jr.