WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. (28-0, 22 KOs) slaughtered a woefully overmatched #2 ranked contender Jin Sasaki (19-2-1, 17 KOs) by a brutal fifth-round knockout on Thursday night at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

It was a one-sided fight with Norman Jr. dropping the much smaller 23-year-old Sasaki three times. The final came with a crushing left hook to the head in the fifth round that sent Sasak1 down flat on his back, looking like he was out cold.

Surprisingly, the referee gave a count while Sasaki lay motionless on the canvas. The time of the stoppage was 46 seconds of the fifth round. Sasaka remained on his back, not moving for some time after the fight was halted. He looked badly hurt. You hate to second-guess a ref, but why in the world didn’t he stop it immediately?

The left hook that Norman Jr. dropped him with was a brutal one that connected cleanly, and Sasaki never saw it coming. It was bone-crushing shots that would have knocked out anyone in the 147-lb division, but what made it more devastating was the size difference between the two fighters.

In the first round, Brian Jr. knocked Sasaki down twice and had him looking close to being stopped. The first knockdown came from a left hook to the back of the head. It looked like a textbook rabbit punch, which the referee should have warned him about.

Replays showed that it was a perfectly placed punch to the back of the head. It was a good form on the rabbit punch by Norman Jr, but it was bad that the referee didn’t waive it off.

Later in the first round, Norman Jr. cornered Sasaki and unleashed a three-punch combination that put him down on the canvas for the second time in the round. One of the shots looked like a rabbit punch as well. Again, the referee didn’t say anything, so the knockdown was allowed to stand.

In the second round, Norman Jr. teed off on Sasaki with punches, hitting him at will with headshots that had the brave Japanese fighter staggering, looking ready to be stopped. Somehow, Sasaki made it through the round despite being hit with everything but the kitchen sink from Norman Jr. It looked like the champion was exhausted from punching the hapless Sasaki.

After the second round, Norman Jr. appeared to take it easy on the overmatched challenger, backing up against the ropes and letting him land some punches. It looked obvious that he was carrying Sasaki out of sympathy, not wanting to further embarrass him in front of his home fans in Tokyo. You could tell that Norman Jr. let off the gas from the third, and let Sasaki stay in the fight.

The size difference between the two fighters was huge. Sasaki resembled a lightweight in size, going up against a small junior middleweight. Norman Jr. rehydrated big time for this fight and appeared to be around 160 lbs, fighting a lightweight. It was obvious from the start of the fight that Sasaki stood no chance of winning because he wasn’t big enough to compete against the massive 24-year-old Norman Jr.