Japan’s Inoue wins WBC light flyweight title

Naoya Inoue of Japan scored a sixth-round technical knockout of Adrian Hernandez of Mexico on Sunday to win the WBC light flyweight title (Shizuo Kambayashi/AP)

TOKYO — Naoya Inoue of Japan scored a sixth-round technical knockout of Adrian Hernandez of Mexico on Sunday to win the WBC light flyweight title.

The 20-year-old Inoue landed a series of combinations and the bout was stopped 2 minutes, 54 seconds into the sixth round.

Inoue, the first Japanese boxer to claim a world title in just his sixth professional fight, improved to 6-0 with five knockouts. Hernandez dropped to 29-3-1 with 18 KOs.

Also, WBC flyweight champion Akira Yaegashi successfully defended his title for the third time with a ninth-round knockout of eighth-ranked challenger Odilon Zaleta of Mexico.

Yaegashi improved to 20-3 with 10 KOs while Zaleta dropped to 15-4 with eight KOs.

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