On O‘ahu last weekend, 14-year-old “Merciless” Micah Matsushima of Hanapepe’s Oki Boxing Club split a pair of Junior Olympic bouts with Kylie DelaCruz-Kaheaku of O‘ahu’s Five-O Boxing Club. Matsushima turned mellow for a spell as he lost the first bout
On O‘ahu last weekend, 14-year-old “Merciless” Micah Matsushima of Hanapepe’s Oki Boxing Club split a pair of Junior Olympic bouts with Kylie DelaCruz-Kaheaku of O‘ahu’s Five-O Boxing Club.
Matsushima turned mellow for a spell as he lost the first bout on points but came back on the next day to nearly stop DelaCruz-Kaheaku with right hands to the head in the second and third rounds.
In the first bout, 15-year-old DelaCruz-Kaheaku showed a lot of moxie as he finished most of their exchanges with a strong left hook/right cross combination with no returns from Matsushima who blocked most of the punches but let enough slip by to cause him to lose on two of the three judges’ cards.
Coach Ken Oki spent a sleepless Friday night trying to figure out why Matsushima seemed stuck on throwing a couple of meek punches then backing off immediately to block punches but sometimes getting caught by his aggressive opponent. In the second fight, Matsushima went out and lost the first round then came back to the corner to face a blistering chewing out by Oki who urged him to stand and throw his straight right instead of backing off.
In the second round DelaCruz-Kaheaku was stunned when Matsushima, who usually backed off after a couple of jabs, threw his hard straight right instead. That right hand turned the fight around as it led to a convincing victory and also brought Matsushima back.
