Kosei Tanaka stopped Pablo Carrillo in the 10th round on Sunday night at the Paloma Mizuho Arena in Tanaka’s hometown of Nagoya, Japan.

Tanaka, who is ranked No. 7 at 115 pounds by The Ring, improved to 19-1, 15 knockouts.

The taller Tanaka threw his customary high volume of punches throughout the fight but was more methodical in his approach by working behind a jab and moving in and out of Carrillo’s range.

Tanaka began walking him down as the fight progressed into the middle rounds. Undaunted, Carrillo threw combinations but ended up fighting off his back foot.

Carrillo suffered a cut about his right eye from a punch in the seventh round. Carrillo, to his credit, never let up from trying to find openings or looking to counter Tanaka. Carrillo looked winded by the ninth round as his punch output dropped, and he was relegated to throwing punches in spurts.

Towards the end of 10th round, Tanaka landed a right cross to the head of Carrillo, who was momentarily staggered from the punch. Carrillo’s right arm almost touched the canvas, and Tanaka followed with a two-punch combination that missed.

Despite Carrillo not looking overwhelmingly hurt, the referee stepped in at 2:43 to stop the fight.

In a post-fight interview, Tanaka stated he would like the opportunity to fight IBF world juniro bantamweight titleholder Fernando Martinez of Argentina.

The 27-year-old Tanaka has won world title belts at 105, 108 and 112 pounds. In his previous bout on December 11, Tanaka defeated Yanga Sigqibo by unanimous decision. The win over Sigqibo came about five and a half months after Tanaka stopped Masayoshi Hashizume in the fifth round.

Tanaka moved up in weight to challenge then-WBO world junior bantamweight titleholder Kazuto Ioka in December 2020, losing by knockout in the eighth round. He has since won his last four bouts.

Carrillo, who resides in Barranquilla, Colombia, falls to 29-9-2, 17 KOs. In his previous bout on November 24, the 34-year-old Carrillo defeated journeyman Andres Rubio by decision over eight one-sided rounds.

Leading up to the Tanaka fight, Carrillo was unbeaten in his previous four bouts since losing by unanimous decision to Donnie Nietes in April 2021.

In the co-feature, junior bantamweight Kento Hatanaka, who also resides in Nagoya, improved to 14-0, 10 KOs by knocking out 19-year-old Chawadon Mualsuk of Thailand in the third round.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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