N’Dam wins vacant WBA middleweight title with points win over Murata
Hassan N'Dam (36-2, 21 KOs) was awarded a controversial 12 round split decision over previously undefeated Ryota Murata (12-1, 9 KOs) to win the vacant WBA middleweight title on Saturday at Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan.
Even though Murata got the better of N’Dam in most of the rounds, the Frenchman won by scores of 116-111 and 115-112, while the third judge had it 117-110 for Murata.
The Japanese fighter landed numerous hard shots and dropped N'Dam in the fourth round.
N'Dam scored with jabs and moved well to avoid Murata's blows for the remainder of the bout but when Murata did connect with power shots, he staggered N'Dam each time.
Also on the card, Japan's Daigo Higa (13-0, 13 KOs) stopped Mexico's Juan Hernandez (36-3, 25 KOs) in the sixth round to win the vacant WBC flyweight title.
Higa dropped Hernandez in the second and fifth rounds before stopping him in the sixth with a barrage of punches.
The WBC 112 lb title was only at stake for Higa after Hernandez failed to make weight and was stripped of the belt before the bout.
Ken Shiro (10-0, 5 KOs) dethroned Mexican veteran Ganigan Lopez (28-7, 17 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision to win the WBC light flyweight title and give Japan a clean sweep of the four major titles at 108 pound.
The judges scores were 115-113 twice and 114-114.
Ryoichi Taguchi is the WBA titleholder, Kosei Tanaka is the WBO titlist and Akira Yaegashi is the IBF champion.