Undefeated former Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super featherweight champion Hironori Mishiro of Watanabe Boxing Gym stopped former Japanese lightweight champion Kazuhiro Nishitani of VADY Boxing Gym in the sixth round in a highly touted nontitle bout on Dec. 2 in Tokyo.

The technical knockout of the scheduled eight-rounder at Korakuen Hall came 2 minutes and 1 second into the round with Mishiro’s counter right, which sent Nishitani sprawling on his back. The referee stopped the fight without bothering to count.

While both fought almost evenly in the first four rounds with Mishiro, 27, sticking out left jabs and Nishitani, 34, fighting back occasionally by keeping his guard tight.

In the late fifth stanza, Mishiro suddenly stepped in to land a straight right to the head, putting Nishitani down to the canvas hard. But the tenacious Nishitani struggled to his feet when the bell ending the round sounded.

While Nishitani showed everything he had in his arsenal in the sixth round, Mishiro fended off Nishitani’s attack without much ado before landing the counter right.

With the victory, Mishiro, who was fighting his first fight since decisioning former World Boxing Organization’s world super featherweight champion Masayuki Ito of then Banryu Boxing Gym a year ago, improved his record to 11 wins, including four KOs, with one draw. For his part, Nishitani, the third-ranked Japanese super featherweight contender, fell to a 21-6-1 win-loss-draw tally with 12 KOs.

After the fight, Nishitani, currently ranked 15th by the International Boxing Federation, said, ‘’Since I was able to win the fight satisfactorily, I hope I can next fight a world’s middle-ranked boxer,’’ (to set the stage for a world title challenge).