WBC Light-Flyweight Champion Adrian Hernandez vs Atsushi Kakutani (VIDEO)

Credit: ESPN.

I became familiar with Mexico’s Adrian Hernandez (28-2) after watching his exciting two-fight series with Kompayak Porpramook. This past weekend, he defended his WBC light-flyweight (108 lbs) title against Japan’s Atsushi Kakutani (13-4).

The fight delivered, as the unheralded challenger opened the first stanza with a straight-right that knocked the champion down to the canvas. While Hernandez recovered and fought back, Kakutani walked away with a 10-8 round. In the second and third round, Hernandez started landing big power punches on Kakutani. The Japanese challenger responded back with body shots, counters and combinations. Hernandez won both those action-packed rounds, making the score 28-28. We then arrived at the fourth round — Hernandez started taking over and forced three knockdowns. The referee stopped it after Kakutani’s knee touched the canvas a third time, awarding Hernandez the TKO victory at 1:12 of the fourth frame.