Rising Japanese knockout sensation Daiga Higa successfully defended his WBC flyweight title today at home in Japan. He also kept his perfect knockout percentage in tact without putting in much time in the ring by putting Moises Fuentes away in the very first round.
Daigo Higa (15-0, 15 KOs) is a must find stream for any international fight fan. He isn’t quite as skilled as his top countrymen like Naoya Inoue or Kosei Tanaka, but he is more aggressive. His power is also very, very real. He displayed it in both hands here in two minutes in thirty two seconds. First he wobbled his Mexican challenger with a big overhand right before putting him down for good with a devastating and very much audible left hook to the body.
I don’t know if this fight necessarily should have been waved off given that I thought Moises Fuentes (25-5-1, 14 KOs) had risen before the ten count, but it is a hard one to get worked up about. Given the way that that hook had folded him over, all it likely would have taken to put him back down would have been a single shot anywhere in the vicinity. This was only ever going to go the way that it did.
I’d really love if HBO could figure out how to feature Higa on Super Fly 3 should that take place. Otherwise, I’d love to see domestic showdowns with Sho Kimura or the moving up Kosei Tanaka, but those don’t tend to happen in Japan all that often. Plus, rumor has it Kimura and Tanaka may buck that trend by fighting one another, making then both unavailable in the short term.
