Carlos Canizales retained his secondary junior flyweight world title by lopsided unanimous decision over Sho Kimura in the main event of a world title doubleheader on Sunday in Fuzhou, China.
Canizales (22-0-1, 17 KOs), 26, of Venezuela, used his movement and angles to frustrate Kimura, who pressed the action but could rarely find Canizales with a clean punch.
Canizales won by scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110 as he easily handled Japan’s Kimura (18-3-2, 11 KOs), 30, a former flyweight world titlist, who was dropping down in weight to challenge for the 108-pound belt.
Canizales was making his second title defense and fighting for the first time since last July, when he stopped Bin Lu in the 12th round of his first defense on the Manny Pacquiao-Lucas Matthysse undercard in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In the co-feature, China’ s Xu Can (17-2, 3 KOs) retained his secondary featherweight world title in his hometown as he knocked out Shun Kubo (13-2, 9 KOs) in the sixth round.
Can dominated the action in a fight in which Kubo took a lot of punishment. In the fifth round, Can landed clean punches with both hands nearly at will before finally dropping Kubo to a knee with a left hand with 25 seconds left in the round.
They battled toe to toe in the sixth round, but Can did most of the damage, and when he landed a three-punch combination in the center of the ring, referee Gustavo Padilla had seen enough and stopped the fight at 1 minute, 16 seconds.
Can, 25, won the secondary 126-pound belt on Jan. 26 in Houston, where he won a unanimous decision in a mild upset over Jesus Rojas, and was making his first defense against Japanese southpaw Kubo, 29, a former junior featherweight world titlist.