World Boxing Organization female super flyweight champion Mizuki Hiruta of Misako Boxing Gym needed only 63 seconds to stop Casey Morton of the United States and retained her title in a scheduled 10-round title fight on June 13 in Tokyo.

  It was the 27-year-old Hiruta’s first successful defense of the title she captured last December.

  Fighting at Korakuen Hall, the left-handed Hiruta scored a knockdown soon after the opening bell by landing a right hook to the head followed by a left uppercut.

  While the 39-year-old Morton struggled to her feet, Hiruta swarmed all over her opponent and decked Morton again with a right hook. Though Morton wobbled to her feet, Hiruta sent her again to the canvas with a straight left.

The tenacious Morton beat the referee’s count only to be dropped by Hiruta’s left for her fourth knockdown in the first round, prompting the referee to call off the fight and declare Hiruta’s technical knockout victory.

After the fight, Hiruta said, ‘’I am happy, although I myself was surprised (at the early end). While my trainer and I had been initially planning to control the fight with jabs, I went all over her because I landed effective punches. Before the fight, I had trained in the U.S. for this fight and fully realized that there are many strong boxers there. I myself want to advance into the U.S. (in the future).

It was Huruta’s first KO victory after winning her five straight bouts by decision. Hiruta was a former amateur star and narrowly missed the right to take part in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as she was edged by the eventual featherweight gold medalist Sena Irie of (then Nippon Sport Science University) in a Japanese preliminary round in 2019.

With the defeat, Morton fell to a 11-4-3 win-loss-draw tally with three KOs.