Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2017-12-31, close fight with some nice exchanges: Ryoichi Taguchi vs Milan Melindo gets three stars.The Ibf light-Flw champion Milan Melindo entered this fight with a boxing record of 37-2-0 (13 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.3 light flyweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Ken Shiro). He lost to Javier Mendoza in 2015 (=Melindo vs Mendoza), but then he has won five consecutive bouts defeating Akira Yaegashi (=Yaegashi vs Melindo) and Hekkie Budler in 2017 (=Melindo vs Budler).
His opponent, the Wba light-Flw champion Ryoichi Taguchi, has an official record of 26-2-2 (12 knockouts) and he entered as the No.10 in the same weight class. He suffered his last defeat when he faced Naoya Inoue in 2013, since then he has collected eight victories and one draw, against Carlos Canizales at the end of 2016 (=Taguchi vs Canizales); after this fight he has beat Robert Barrera (=Taguchi vs Barrera). Taguchi vs Melindo is valid for the IBF and WBA Super World light flyweight titles. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2017-12-31
Where: Ota-City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan
Division: light flyweight (108 lbs, 49.0 kg)
Title: IBF and WBA Super World light flyweight titles
Melindo’s previous fight: Milan Melindo vs Hekkie Budler
Taguchi’s previous fight: Ryoichi Taguchi vs Robert Barrera
Taguchi’s next fight: Ryoichi Taguchi vs Hekkie Budler
Melindo’s next fight: Ken Shiro vs Milan Melindo
Melindo vs Taguchi full fight video:
(Free embeddable video hosted on Dailymotion and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
Taguchi performed plastic surgery on Melindo’s face