HAVING been scheduled to face each other on two Naoya Inoue cards prior, it was third time lucky for Yoshiki Takei as he finally got his fight with Yuttapong Tongdee, who wasn’t so lucky.
The pair had been set to meet on the Inoue-Goodman bill in December, which was cancelled, and then on the Inoue-Kim card in January, before Takei pulled out with an injury.
Instead, Takei, 10-0 (8 KOs), headlined against Tongdee, 15-0 (9 KOs), today in Yokohama, as Takei looked towards potential unification showdowns against his fellow undefeated Japanese bantamweight champions, Junto Nakatani and Ryosuke Nishida.
Yet, the amateur pedigree of Tongdee made him a potential banana skin, boasting an eye-catching win over Robeisy Ramirez in the unpaid ranks.
However, Takei made short work of his Thai challenger, scoring an early knockdown with a straight left-hand at the beginning of the opening round before dropping an unsteady Tongdee for a second time just seconds later.
Tongdee would hit the deck once again before returning to his feet and being stopped by referee Chris Young whilst under fire in the corner – cementing a statement win for Takei, who improved to 11-0 and proceeded to call for a clash with Nakatani in the post-fight interview.
Nakatani is currently scheduled to take on Nishida in a bantamweight title unification on June 8, meaning Takei is now well-poised for an all-Japanese three-belt unification against the victor later this year.
