Yafai retains WBA super flyweight title with points win over Muranaka
WBA super flyweight Khalid Yafai (22-0, 14 KOs) defeated Suguru Muranaka (25-3-1, 8 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.
The judges scored the fight 118-108 and 119-107 twice in favour of Yafai, who was making the first defence of his WBA title.
Previous champion Luis Concepcion was stripped the day before his fight against Yafai for failing to make weight.
Yafai defeated him by unanimous decision to win the vacant WBA belt last December.
The Briton dropped Muranaka in the second round with a left-right combination as he got the better of the Japanese challenger in the early rounds.
But Yafai, who was deducted a point in the eighth for low blows, had to battle hard in the later rounds due to the constant pressure from Muranaka.
Yafai now aims to fight the bigger names at 115 pounds, including Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez, Naoya Inoue and Juan Francisco Estrada.
Also on the card, British welterweight contender Sam Eggington (21-3, 13 KOs) dethroned defending European champion Ceferino Rodriguez (24-2, 12 KOs) by a spectacular 10th round KO.
Eggington outpunched the Spaniard in most of the rounds before a right uppercut followed by a huge left hook knocked Rodriguez through the ropes.
Rodriguez remained down and the referee immediately waved off the fight at 1:03 of the 10th.