Second-ranked Japanese super bantamweight Yusaku Kuga of Watanabe Boxing Gym eked out an eight-round majority decision over top-ranked Ryoichi Tamura of JB Sports Boxing Gym at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall on Oct. 2 in a fight billed as deciding the contender for the current champion Gakuya Furuhashi of Kawasaki Nitta Boxing Gym.

After the fight, the 30-year-old Kuga, who lost the title to Furuhashi in January this year, vowed to get his revenge on Furuhashi with a knockout win.

With the victory, Kuga improved his record to 20 wins, including 13 KOs, against five losses and a draw, while the 34-year-old Tamura impaired to a 14-6-1 win-loss-draw tally with seven KOs. It was Tamura’s third consecutive defeat to Kuga.

While there were no knockdowns in the fight, Kuga controlled the fight all the way.

The bout was held as the chief supporting card for the day’s Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation, World Boxing Organization Asia-Pacific and Japanese super flyweight title match between champion Ryoji Fukunaga of Kadoebi Boxing Gym and challenger Hayate Kaji of Teiken Boxing Gym.