Sho Kimura Retains WBO Flyweight Title With Impressive Knockout Win
It was almost exactly one year ago since Sho Kimura won the WBO flyweight title in China and Kimura can add another world title win in the country.
In a short, but eventful fight, Kimura knocked out Froilan Saludar in the sixth round to retain his WBO title in China. This marked Kimura’s second defense of the title and fourth consecutive win by stoppage or by knockout.
The fight started with Saludar being the more aggressive fighter in the first couple of rounds, but was able to land any meaningful punches as Kimura would block most of Saludar’s punches. Kimura would get some offense in the first couple of rounds, mostly landing series of body shots to Saludar.
The third round really started to move in favor of Kimura as he trapped Saludar into a corner about halfway into the round and land a barrage of clean punches upstairs. Saludar’s legs appeared to buckle during the exchange, but was never knocked down.
Kimura would continue finding success with the body shots. In fact, it was a short, left uppercut to Saludar’s ribs which knocked Saludar down in the fifth round. The sixth round started with Kimura trapping Saludar in a corner once more and landing about a dozen or so clean punches. Saludar recovered and tried to fight back, but was ultimately overwhelmed by Kimura’s power. Kimura landed another left hand to Saludar’s body to knock him out for good as Saludar was unable to get back up to his feet by the referee’s 10-count.
After losing his pro debut, Kimura would end up not losing a fight for the remainder of his career up to this point, a period which now spans 19 fights. Kimura won the title on July 28, 2017 with an upset win over Zou Shiming in Shiming’s first title defense.
The loss to Kimura snapped Saludar’s five-fight win streak, all of which were won by either knockout or stoppage. Saludar is the brother of current WBO minimumweight champion Vic Saludar, who won his title on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Lucas Matthysse undercard.
