Noriyuki Komatsu: OPBF Champion and WBC Title Challenger
Japanese flyweight Noriyuki Komatsu held the OPBF title and challenged WBC champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam in January 2005. Wonjongkam stopped Komatsu in the fifth round to retain the world title.
Komatsu’s regional championship run
Komatsu established himself as a regional titleholder before his world championship opportunity. In September 2003, he retained the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation flyweight belt by a twelve-round split decision over Masaki “Trash” Nakanuma in Osaka. Contemporary coverage described it as his third successful defense.
He continued that run in February 2004, defeating the Philippines’ Edgar Rodrigo through an eighth-round technical decision in Osaka. A further technical-decision victory over Takeyuki Kojima in June brought his fifth successful defense. Those results show a title campaign built around repeated defenses rather than a single championship win.
Moving from OPBF to WBC competition
The January 2005 challenge placed Komatsu against Wonjongkam for a separate, WBC world championship. The contemporary fight report records the champion scoring several knockdowns and opening cuts before the fifth-round stoppage. Komatsu’s experience as an OPBF champion did not translate into a world title on that occasion.
The distinction between the two championships matters when assessing his record. His regional reign included successful defenses against Japanese and overseas opponents, while the Wonjongkam contest was an unsuccessful world title challenge.
The embedded video features a different opponent, Rosendo Vega, in a super-flyweight contest. It provides additional footage of Komatsu’s boxing career rather than showing the January 2005 WBC title fight.
Sources
- Boxing.jp: February 2004 OPBF defense
- Boxing.jp: June 2004 OPBF defense
- Fight report
- WBC flyweight title history
Career records and reporting: boxrec.com.
Tags
Boxing, Boxing History
