Yaegashi Stops Said In Three, Eyes Another Title Shot

By Jake Donovan

Former two-division champ Akira Yaegashi picked up his second straight win on his rebuilding stopping Said M Said in three rounds Thursday evening in Tokyo, Japan. 

Yaegashi had little difficulty in gertting his overmatched opponent, which functionally was the game plan with the goal of restoring his confidence in preparation for a shot at another title. Body shots were key in breaking down Said (2-3, 1KOs), who was fighting outside of Indonesia for the first time in his young career.

The bout was Yaegashi's second since suffering back-to-back title fight knockout losses in 2014. His World flyweight championship reign came to an end at the lethal hands of unbeaten Roman Gonzalez, who stopped him in nine one-sided rounds to collect his third title in as many weight classes. 

Following the loss, Yaegashi decided to drop down to junior flyweight, a division he had skipped over in pursuing a flyweight title following his run at strawweight. The move proved disastrous, as a competitive vacant title fight with Pedro Guevara ended in an instant as he was stopped in seven rounds last December. 

It was decided afterward that the wiser move would be to move up, not down in weight, and perhaps pursue a run at super flyweight. His first fight back - in May - came at 115 lbs., although Thursday's bout was fought at the flyweight limit. 

With the win, Yaegashi advances to 22-5 (12KOs). According to our good friends at AsianBoxing.info, tentative plans call for the 32-year old to appear on a New Year's Eve show featuring the long-awaited return of undefeated 115 lb. champion Naoya Inoue, the BoxingScene.com 2014 Fighter of the Year. 

Also on Thursday's show (line results only):

Unbeaten middleweight Ryo Matsumoto scored a 5th round knockout of Mexico's Luis May;



Three-time featherweight title challenger Satoshi Hosono outpointed Tatsuya Otsubo over 10 rounds in their domestic title fight.