Masakazu Satake, one of Japan's hottest boxing properties, turned out the lights on highly touted Filipino challenger Dindo Castanares in the eighth round on Saturday to retain his Oriental-Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) super lightweight title at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.
Fighting as the main supporting card for the day's World Boxing Council (WBC) super bantamweight title fight, southpaw Satake landed a pair of crunching right hooks over the top in the eighth round, flooring the previously undefeated top-ranked challenger for the count 2 minutes, 4 seconds into the round of the scheduled 12-rounder.
It was the 25-year-old Satake's ninth successful defense of the title he won in 1999.