Kazuto Ioka scored a knockout victory in the seventh round of his fight with title challenger Josber Perez.
The Venezuelan had travelled to Tokyo to contest the WBA junior bantamweight champion, but the incumbent was largely comfortable.
Ioka sent Perez to the canvas three times on the way to his victory, earning him his first knockout win for three years, with the 34-year-old in dominant form.
While the Japanese stalwart was on top for most of the match-up, Perez clocked Ioka with some early punches to the face, and the pair then unloaded in the third round.
In round five, a flurry of blows to the head and body of Perez saw him take a knee, and an eight count. Shortly afterwards a right-hander put Perez back to the ground.
Perez was then struggling in the sixth, but managed to hold on until the next round, when another powerful blow from Ioka’s right sent him back to take a knee for the countout.
Next up for Ioka could be a potential unification clash with Juan Francisco Estrada, but there have been suggestions that unified flyweight belt holder Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez could be next, after he defeated Sunny Edwards earlier in the month.