Felix Alvarado emerged victorious in an IBF light flyweight title bout in Kobe, Japan.
On May 19, Alvarado retained his title against Reiya Konishi with a unanimous decision victory, winning with scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112. The fight headlined a card from the Portopia Hotel that also included a Japanese light flyweight title bout between Kenichi Horikawa and Masashi Tada, which Horikawa won with scores of 99-90, 99-90 and 98-91.
The fight saw Konishi give a spirited effort against the champion, landing numerous combinations in the first half of that pushed Alvarado back. Even so, Alvarado landed the bigger punches throughout the fight and with Konishi slowing down his pace in the second half, Alvarado started outboxing his opponent. Konishi continued to fight his way back to victory on the scorecards late in the bout, but was easily getting outworked by Alvarado.
This was Alvarado's first world title defense since winning the belt back in October when he stopped Randy Petalcorin last October in the Philippines. Alvarez has won his last 17 fights after unsuccessfully challenging for a world title in two consecutive fights in 2013 and 2014. The IBF title was vacant at the time of Alvarado's title win last year after former champion Hekkie Budler vacated the belt due to a purse bid for a fight against Petalcorin being too low for him.
As for Konishi, the former Japanese national minimumweight champion is has now lost both attempts at a world title at 108 pounds. Konishi's pro records now falls to 17-2 with the loss to Alvarado.