JOHNRIEL Casimero made some noise in his first fight in Japan in a year, scoring a fifth round TKO against an overmatched Tom Mizukoshi Saturday at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Japan.
The 36-year-old former three-time world champion wasn’t in danger for the entire eight-round fight at featherweight which came to an end when Casimero connected with a solid 1-2 combination against the bloodied Japanese.
The power punches left Mizukoshi down on the canvas. The referee didn’t even finish the 10-count and signaled the end to the bout to the dismay of the game Japanese.
Casimero improved his record to 35-5-1 with 24 KOs and made a successful return in the Land of the Rising Sun after being banned to fight for a year by the Japanese Boxing Commission following his failure to make weight in his last Japan fight against Saul Sanchez.
He also made it back to the winning track after previously losing his last fight against Japanese Kyonosuke Kameda in Kyrgyzstan via unanimous decision.
More importantly, Casimero somehow became relevant again in the featherweight division and on track of a possible big-pay fight against Mexican Luis Nery or two-time undisputed champion Naoya Inoue.
Mizukoshi, 26, lost for the second straight match and fell to 11-6-2 (5 KOs).
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