by Ronnie Nathanielsz

Former world and Orient Pacific Boxing Federation champion Malcolm “Eagle Eye” Tunacao continues his comeback after losing by a 12th round TKO in his battle for the World Boxing Council title against  champion Shinsuke Yamanaka, winning by a 5th round technical decision over Ryuta Otsuka at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

In the fight scheduled for eight rounds an accidental clash of heads opened up a nasty gash on the left eye of Tunacao forcing the stoppage at 1:56 of the fifth round. Otsuka was also cut.

Tunacao dropped Otsuka in the opening round and was in control most of the fight.

All three judges had Tunacao who fights out of Kobe, Japan and is popular among Japanese fight fans , well ahead in their scorecards at the time the fight was stopped with one judge scoring a 50-46 shutout and the two other judges scoring it handily for the  Filipino southpaw, 49-46.

It was the 36 year old Tunacao’s third successive win in scheduled eight round bouts and raised his record to 35-3-3 with 20 knockouts.

In his last fight on May 22, Tunacao won a unanimous eight round decision over Joo Hyung Jung.

The 28 year old Otsuka, a former Japanese flyweight title challenger who was considered a worthy opponent dropped to 14-7-2 with 4 knockouts.  He was coming off a 5th round TKO win over Yosuke Fujihara after losing a technical decision to Teiru Kinoshita