Japanese bantamweight champion Seiya Tsutsumi of Kadoebi Boxing Gym scored four knockdowns and hammered out a 10-round unanimous decision over third-ranked Kazuki Anaguchi of Shinsei Boxing Gym to retain the title in an exciting slugfest on Dec. 26 in Tokyo.

  The fight at Ariake Arena was held as the chief supporting card for the world super bantamweight title unification bout between Naoya ‘’the Monster’’ Inoue and Marlon Tapales of the Philippines.

  It was the 28-year-old Tsutsumi’s fourth successful defense of the title he captured in June last year. The fight was dubbed ‘’Bantamweight Monster Tournament Finals,’’ in which Tsutsumi took home the winner’s prize of 10 million yen (about 70,230 US dollars) in addition to his purse for the fight.

  After they got off to a relatively quiet start, Tsutsumi suffered a severe cut above his left eyelid in the third round due to the 23-year-old Anamizu’s punches.

  Both southpaws began to exchange fierce blows from the fourth round, and Anamizu was dropped to the canvas late in the round with Tsutsumi’s left hook.

  While Anamizu was slightly ahead on judges’ scorecards in the first five round, Tsutsumi hung tough and scored the second knockdown in the fight in the seventh round with a straight right to the head. Anamizu got up and rebounded strongly, exchanging punches with Tsutsumi.

  Tsutsumi, who was on the defensive in the eighth round, floored Anamizu with a barrage of body blows in the ninth round and went on to score another knockdown after 2 minutes and 50 seconds in the 10^th and final round with right-left combinations.

  Two of the three judges scored the fight 94-92 and the remaining one had it 95-91, all in favor of Tsutsumi.