Champion Toshiki Shimomachi of Green Tsuda Boxing Gym retained his Japanese super bantamweight title with a majority draw with top-ranked Toshiya Ishii of REBOOT.IBA Boxing Gym on Oct. 31 at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.

  After the hard-fought 10-round fight, two of the three judges scored the fight even at 95-95 while the third judge had it 96-93 in favor of Shimomachi.

  It was the 26-year-old Shimomachi’s first successful defense of the title he won last June by decisioning Ryuto Owan of Shisei Boxing Gym for the vacant title.

  While there were no knockdowns throughout the fight both the left-handed Shimomachi and Ishii exchanged fierce blows throughout the fight. Though much taller Shimomachi appeared to have floored Ishii in the ninth round with a straight left, it was ruled a slip down.

  With the successful defense, Shimomachi now has a record of 17 wins, including 11 KOs, against a loss and three draws. For his part, the 22-year-old Ishii has a 6-1-2 win-loss-draw tally with four KOs.