Ryoichi Taguchi unified the junior flyweight belts as he outslugs Milan Melindo on new year's eve at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan. It was an action-packed, bloody fight and Taguchi came out as the better boxer. The scorecards read 117-111 (twice) and 116-111.

Melindo (37-3, 13 KOs) of Cagayan de Oro City was able to control the first two rounds. He tagged Taguchi with solid body shots, precise counters, and effective jabs. In the third, Melindo suffered a cut over his left eye that bothered him throughout the fight. That's the round Taguchi stepped up the tempo of his offense.

Taguchi (27-2-2, 12 KOs) of Tokyo, Japan controlled the third round onwards connecting clean punches upstairs and moving away as Melindo counters. Taguchi utilized his long left hands to gauge distance, blocked Melindo's vision as Taguchi follow through with his right hand.

In the sixth, again, Melindo suffered a cut this time over his right eye resulting from a head clash, slowing down Melindo in the process.

In the ninth, an accidental headbutt opened a cut over Taguchi's forehead. Melindo, capitalized on the situation digging deep down to Taguchi's body and upstairs.

In the tenth, Taguchi showed determination to control the round throwing barrage of punches, which Melindo answered with his own barrage.

In the end, it was Taguchi's hands raised in victory. With the win, I love to see Taguchi square it up against the best in the division, compatriot Ken Shiro or Kosei Tanaka.

Light flyweight titlist Javier Mendoza retains title, decisions Melindo on Saturday night in Mexico. The official scores were: 60-52, 60-52 and 59-53.

The fight was stopped in the sixth round as Mendoza (24-2-1, 19KO's) unfit to continue resulting from a deep cut over his left eye from an accidental clash of heads.

Melindo (32-2, 12KO's) begins with the wrong foot and got warning from referee for a low blow early in Round 1. In the fifth round, he was deducted a point for repeated low blows.

It remains to be seen if Melindo could become a world champion. So far, he failed on his second attempt. AJ Banal, Melindo's stable mate, suffered the same fate.

[caption id="attachment_5710" align="alignnone" width="1526"] Milan (left) with Retech (right) at the "D-Day" boxing card in Manila[/caption]

The 27 year old flyweight contender Milan Melindo will be on the road to challenge Javier Mendoza's IBF world light Flyweight title at Campo Nuevo Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

Melindo (32-1, 12 KO's) who hails from Cagayan de Oro, will attempt to win a world title at the lower weight class this time . He's campaigning at the flyweight division in his previous bouts. But he moved back down to flyweight in his latest outing against Saul Juarez, whom he decisions in 12 rounds. Also in this fight he will move back down to light flyweight's 108 lbs limit.  This will be Melindo's second attempt for world title.

The then undefeated Melindo, who now resides in Cebu City, got his first opportunity to fight for world title at flyweight's 112 lbs. limit in 2013. He was pitted against number 8 pound-for-pound best today in the sport of boxing according to the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board in Juan Francisco Estrada.

Melindo started well in the first half of the fight. But he was outworked in the later rounds and was down in round 11 en route to unanimous decision loss.

In his second bid for the world title, Melindo will be fighting in front of Mendoza's hometown crowd. It's perceived that Melindo needs to score a knockout in order to secure a win. But Edito "Ala" Villamor, ALA's head trainer believes that there's no need for KO. But "he (Melindo) needs to win impressively in every round" reiterates Villamor in Filipino.

Both Melindo and Mendoza registered 107.2 lbs on the scales during the official weigh-in on Friday.

[caption id="attachment_2583" align="alignnone" width="738"] Photo: Dong Secuya/Philboxing.com[/caption]

Donnie "Ahas" Nietes said that there will be "no draw" in his rematch with Mexican Moises Fuentes at the Mall of Asia Arena, Pasay City, Philippines. And he delivered.

Nietes who trains from ALA Boxing stable stops Fuentes in round 9 and retains his WBO light flyweight title. He drops Fuentes twice in round 9 before landing a cracking overhand right that put his challenger down. Referee Robert Byrd didn't bother to count and immediately waives it of as Fuentes is in no position to continue. The official time of the stoppage: 2:56 in round 9.

[Read Also: Pinoy Pride 25: Preview and prediction]

Nietes, now improved his record to 33 wins, 19 by way of stoppage, 1 loss and 4 draws started the fight well, boxing and moving around, landing the cleaner shots. Fuentes on the other end started slowly as usual but pressing forward targeting the champion's body.

In the second round, Fuentes, now dropped to 19 wins, 10 by way of stoppage, 2 losses, and 1 draw, stepped up the pace and continue to press forward, catching Nietes to the body when Nietes crouch and spin away from him. In the third round, Nietes hurt Fuentes with a body shot that stunned the challenger momentarily on his track.

In the seventh round, Nietes landed clean combinations that wobbled Fuentes, but unable to finished as the hard hitting challenger from Mexico tried to hold on.

In the eighth round both fighters slowed down a bit -- especially Nietes -- who looks tired and seemed he punch-out in the previous round.

Stamina has been a problem for Nietes in the past.

However, in the ninth round Nietes dropped Fuentes and hit him while on the floor, resulting to a point deduction. The fight continued. Nietes again sent Fuentes to the floor with a couple of body and head shots. Fuentes managed to survive the count but still too shaky. Nietes, although sensing a knockout win, didn't rush things up. He waited and unleashed a well-timed finishing touch -- a cracking overhand right -- that landed clean on Fuentes left face.

With the win, Nietes registered his 21st win in 25 bouts, without defeat, and only 4 draws since losing a split decision against Angky Angkotta in 2004. This is also Nietes second straight victory via stoppage.

Milan Melindo UD12 Martin Tecuapetla

In the supporting main event, Milan Melindo (31-1, 12 KO's) showcased yet another methodical beat down against Martin Tecuapetla (11-6-2, 8 KO's) of Mexico in over 12 rounds of boxing spectacle. Variety of punches, from jab, uppercuts and hooks were on display. The left hook followed by uppercut combination find its home most of the time on Tecuapetla's head. Melindo out-classed the extremely tough challenger that never stops coming forward. Melindo was sweeping rounds from the opening round until round 8 on my scorecards.

In round 9, Melindo was deducted for a low blow. After the deduction, Melindo showed signs of fatigue -- slowed down drastically -- and was breathing heavily. In round 10, Tecuapetla continue to press forward against a now more stationary champion. But Melindo was able to defend effectively and occasionally catching Tecuapetla with left and right counters.

In round 11, Melindo executes the final push landing beautiful counters. In the final round, Melindo is well ahead in my scorecards. I have him winning 8 rounds against 4. The official scores were 114-114,116-112 and 115-113. The draw scored by Filipino judge Zalven Lagumbay doesn't make sense to me. At worse, the score could be 7 rounds against 5 on Melindo's favor, but a tie -- no way.

Rey Bautista UD10 Sergio Villanueva

Meanwhile, Rey "BoomBoom" Bautista (35-3, 25 KO') scored a unanimous victory against Sergio Villanueva (26-4-2, 13 KO's) also from Mexico, in his ring return after more than one year of inactivity. This is Bautista's debut as a junior lightweight.

Bautista who promised to deliver a showing did just enough to get the judges nod to the tune of 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94. However, it's a good performance for Bautista, although, far from what I expected from him.