Shinsuke Yamanaka (15-0-2, 11KO) turned back the challenge of Vic Darchinyan (37-4-1, 27KO) with a 12-round unanimous decision win Friday, April 5 evening at the International Forum in Tokyo, Japan, BoxingScene reported.

Scores were 116-112 (twice) and 117-111 for Yamanaka, who was making the first defense of his bantamweight belt.

Darchinyan was aggressive early on, but lost control in the middle rounds and could never quite catch the defending champ. Scorecards through eight rounds revealed a fight still mathematically within reach, but Yamanaka closed strong to remain unbeaten.

The loss is now two straight for Darchinyan, who is now 0-3 in bantamweight title fights after having fallen short to Joseph Agbeko and Anselmo Moreno.