Seigo Yuri Akui won the WBA flyweight title today in Osaka, Japan, beating Artem Dalakian over 12 rounds by unanimous decision.
Judges scored the fight 116-112, 117-111, and 119-109 for Akui, who becomes a world titleholder for the first time.
Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 114-114.
The loss ends a nearly six-year reign for Ukraine’s Dalakian (22-1, 15 KO), who won the vacant title against Brian Viloria in Feb. 2018, and made six successful defenses, five in his home country and one last year in England.
Akui (19-2-1, 11 KO) was, of course, the home fighter, but before you start blaming “Japanese judges,” keep in mind the judges were — in order of score listed above — Raul Caiz Sr of the United States, Luis Pabon of Puerto Rico, and Canada’s Jeremy Hayes.
The three seemed to favor the come-forward style of Akui, and while it’s easy to argue he wasn’t terribly effective with his aggression, it’s just as easy to argue Dalakian wasn’t terribly effective with anything other than his foot work, either.
The 28-year-old Akui has now won seven straight fights after losing two of three in 2017-18. The scoring is possibly going to be controversial, but the result itself shouldn’t be seen as anything outrageously bad. Scoring nine or 11 rounds for Akui seems pretty drastic, but it was a fight where most of the rounds looked roughly the same, and that can lead to these things happening.
How did you score the fight?