TOKYO—Don King’s top featherweight, Elio “The Kid” Rojas, scored a convincing unanimous-decision win today in Tokyo to take the World Boxing Council championship held by Takahiro Aoh.
Rojas (21-1,13 KOs), from the Dominican Republic now fighting out of Brooklyn, N.Y., was No. 1 ranked by the WBC as well as mandatory challenger to the champion. He ventured into Aoh’s hometown and dominated him from the opening bell.
Rojas dazzled Aoh and his partisan crowd with an array of punches and combinations landed with speed, accuracy and power.
After the fourth round, Rojas led on each of the three judges’ scorecards by the tallies of 40-36 and 39-37, twice.
Aoh was able to land significant punches—highlighted by a right hook in the seventh round that sent Rojas into the ropes and a left hook to the head that staggered Rojas momentarily in the ninth—but it wasn’t enough to sway the scorers in Aoh’s favor.
After the scheduled 12 rounds were completed, the 26-year-old Rojas had made the most of his first world title appearance, sweeping all scorecards. Duane Ford scored the bout 118-110, Anek Hongtonkgkam saw it similarly at 117-111, and Gelasio Perez Huerta viewed the match the closest at 116-113.