WBA super bantamweight king Daniel Roman (24-2-1, 9 KOs) outworked Japanese challenger Ryo Matsumoto (21-2, 19 KOs) through twelve rounds in Tokyo, Japan to retain his title via scores of 118-110 and 119-109 twice

In a well worked tactic, Roman used an effective body attack to slow down the taller Matsumoto early, using combinations thereafter which more often than not, jarred back the head of the home fighter

Roman was making the maiden defence of a title he won convincingly over Shun Kobo in September 2017.