AARON MCKENNA and Kieron Conway will face off in a thrilling Great Britain v Ireland semi-final after both recording knockout victories in the Prizefighter quarter-finals.
The first night of action for Matchroom’s novel venture in Japan saw all four quarter-finals take place, with fireworks galore during the four middleweight bouts at the Yamato Arena in Suite.
Conway, from Northampton, got off to a flying start in the first fight of the evening, knocking out China’s Ainiwaer Yilixiati in the seventh round. Yilixiati had been unbeaten since 2017, but Conway showed his class and it was a powerful right hook that finally forced the referee to stop the fight with a minute left in the seventh round.
With his spot in the top four secured, Conway could sit back and wait to see who he would face in the other quarterfinal of the evening, when McKenna would face Florida’s Jeovanny Estela in a clash of two undefeated middleweights.
Estela started the fight well and landed a powerful right hook in the first round, which McKenna took well. And the Los Angeles-based Irishman quickly gained the upper hand in the fight and staggered Estela with a powerful left hook in the fourth round.
From there, McKenna showed how to break Estela down, landing tough punches to the head and body. It started out as a one-sided beating, but Estela somehow made it to the final round on his feet.
McKenna, however, did not dispute the split of the knockout bonus that night, which sees $100,000 split between whoever finishes the fight before the end by securing a win via stoppage with less than a minute remaining in the 10th round.
In the main event, Kazuto Takesako won a unanimous decision victory over Durham’s Mark Dickinson in the quarter-finals. The pair were evenly matched and had their own pockets of success throughout the bout. By the 10th, both opened fire in search of a delayed stoppage but were still standing when the final bell sounded.
The scorecards were read in Japanese, meaning Dickinson had no idea he was the underdog until Takesako raised her hand. The judges’ scorecards read 96-94, 97-93 and 98-92, all in favor of the Tokyo native.
The fourth and final quarter-final of the evening, and the nominal highlight of the evening, was the Japan derby between local favourites Riki Kunimoto and Eiki Kani, a rematch of their March clash in Nagoya.
That night, Kunimoto won by knockout in the sixth round, but Kani clearly came in looking for revenge. He didn’t have much success in the first two rounds, but started landing with real authority in the third as the fight heated up.
But Kunimoto roared in the fourth round and sent Kani back to the ropes with a right hook 60 seconds into the round. Kunimoto’s relentless attack followed, but Kani somehow managed to hang on.
A left hook in the final minute of the round hurt Kani again, and with more punches raining down on him, the referee seemed to be considering stopping the fight. Kani made it to the bell, but it was more of the same early in the fifth, and the referee decided to step into the ring with 1:55 remaining.
Kunimoto will now have a chance to seek revenge on Takesako, who is the only man to have defeated him. The pair met in May 2021, with Takesako securing a first-round knockout, but three years later they will meet again with a place in the final at stake.
“There’s still a long way to go,” said Frank Smith, Matchroom CEO, of the evening. “But it was an electrifying start.”
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