YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) - Japan's Katsushige Kawashima floored Rual Juarez of Mexico three times to retain his World Boxing Council (WBC) super flyweight title after a unanimous points decision.
Three judges scored it 113-111, 114-110 and 117-107 in favour of the defending champion, who knocked Juarez down in the second, sixth and seventh round.
"I sent him down so many times and I couldn't score a knockout victory. It was disappointing," the 29-year-old Kawashima said Monday.
After a cautious first round, Kawashima excited the home crowd by firing a right cross-counter to the face to send Juarez down in the second round.
The Mexican challenger hit back in following rounds, but Kawashima connected with frequent right hooks to his face in the fourth and fifth rounds to pile up points.
After hitting another sizzling right hook, the Japanese floored Juarez at the end of the sixth round with a left-fist blow to the body.
The same punch felled Juarez again in the following round. The Mexican was penalised one point when he spat out his mouthpiece in hopes of a brief rest.
The title-holder tried hard to score a knockout victory and never allowed Juarez to fight back after that.
It was Kawashima's first defence of the title he wrested from Japan-based North Korean Masamori Tokuyama (Hong Chang-Soo) in June. The fight stretched his record to 27 wins, including 18 knockouts, against three defeats.
Juarez, ranked 15th in the WBC, was making his fourth attempt at a world title and the first since November 1999 when he lost to Mark Johnson of the United States.
Juarez saw his record reduced to 32 wins, including knockouts, against 10 defeats and one no contest.