MACAU– Genesis Servania overcame a resilient Konosuke Tomiyama, winning by a close nine-round split technical decision in the undercard of the “Fists of Gold II” card at the Cotai Arena, here.
Servania decked the Japanese with a left hook in the opening round but Tomiyama got up and dropped the overeager Servania with a quick left.Tomiyama swarmed on Servania when the latter got up and knocked him down again but the Bacolod fighter survived the onslaught.
Servania knocked Tomiyama down again with hard rights in the third but the Japanese showed his heart and kept poking at Servania with sharp jabs.
Servania hurt Tomiyama with hard one-two combos in the subsequent rounds but the Japanese kept firing hard shots of his own. The Filipino however, piled on points with quick combinations.
A nasty cut on Servania’s left eyebrow led to the fight stoppage in the ninth round and the brawl went to the three judges’ cards – Sawaeng Thaweekoon had it, 85-84 for Tomiyama, judge Salven Lagumbay – 86-83 for Servania and Takeshi Shimakawa – 87-82 also Servania.
Servania improved to 22-0, 8 KOs while Tomiyama dropped to 23-6-2, 8 KOs.
Meanwhile, Dave Peñalosa opened the night with a third round knockout win over Ngaotawa Sithsaithong of Thailand. After a tentative first couple of rounds, the southpaw Peñalosa dropped Sithsaithong on all fours with a quick left uppercut.
The referee reached the ten count at the 45-second mark as Peñalosa remained unbeaten at 7-0, 5 KOs. /Correspondent Rene Bonsubre Jr.