WBC bantam champ Hozumi Hasegawa’s change of mind might be a sour and bitter Christmas cake for highly ranked WBC 118-pound contenders who are expecting their participation in eliminators. People here took it for granted that Hasegawa would renounce his belt because of his weight problem and move up to the super-bantam or feather category after his impressive tenth defense over Alvaro Perez on December 18. Hasegawa, however, said, “My mind is wavering between staying as the champ and moving up to the heavier division. The possibility is now on fifty-fifty. I’d like to consider for some two months and then hope to make a decision.” The most consecutive defenses in Japan were registered by ex-WBA 108-pound champ Yoko Gushiken, who kept his belt thirteen times in 1981 when the newly established “junior flyweight” class had been considerably still less mature and short of real competition. After Hasegawa’s successful defense about a week ago, our aficionados strongly ask him to break Gushiken’s mark and then move up to another division. Hasegawa who so quickly scored his last five defenses all by stoppages needed only less than ten rounds in total (TKO1 and TKO2 each twice, and TKO4 once), but his decision-making may be slow.


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