Chrisjon to defend WBA title against Sato
Chrisjon to defend WBA title against Sato
Suherdjoko, Semarang
World featherweight champion Christian John of Indonesia will
defend his World Boxing Association (WBA) title against Osamu
Sato in Tokyo next week.
He left for Japan on Wednesday, accompanied by trainer Sutan
Rambing and promoter Daniel Bahari.
"I will fight to the best of my ability out there. Sato is
undeniably a tough opponent. He had been the junior featherweight
champion before," said Chrisjon, as the 24-year-old is familiarly
known, prior to his departure on Monday.
It will be Chrisjon's first match after he was declared the
world champion last year. He has booked 33 wins, 19 of which came
by way of KOs.
Ahead of his Sato match, which is scheduled on June 4,
Chrisjon participated in an intensive 45-day training regime on
the mountainous plateau of Lembang, north of Bandung, West Java.
He spent his time in Lembang practicing with three sparring
partners.
As part of his preparations, Chrisjon said that he had been
assessing Sato's strengths and weaknesses by watching video
recordings of the Japanese fighter's previous matches.
He found that Sato was good at hooks and left uppercuts.
"Together with my trainer, I have been looking for the
weaknesses that I will be able to exploit to defeat Sato. We have
assessed his strengths. I definitely never underestimate my
opponents. I take all of them seriously," said Chrisjon, who will
have to reduce his weight by 2.2 kilograms to reach the required
57.1 kilograms.
Chrisjon's march to the world championship began when he
defeated Oscar Leon of Colombia in an 'interim' fight in Bali on
Sept. 28 last year.
He had to wait for two months before he was declared the world
champion after reigning champion Derrick Gainer of the United
States failed in his bid to unify his WBA title with the
International Boxing Federation (IBF) title on Nov. 1.
Chrisjon is Indonesia's second world champion boxer after
Ellyas Pical, who was the IBF champion in the super flyweight
division between 1985 and 1989.