Seiya Tsutsumi vs Daigo Higa Preview Feb. 24th, 2025
Unbeaten WBA Bantamweight Champion Seiya Tsutsumi defends his belt for the first time against fellow countryman Daigo Higa this Monday, Feb. 24th. The 12-round contest from Tokyo can be seen live in America at 3 am ET on ESPN+ while fans in the UK and Ireland can see it on Sky Sports Action at 9 am. Tsutsumi won the title in October with a unanimous decision over Takuma Inoue while Higa came out on the wrong end of a controversial decision to WBO Bantamweight Champion Yoshiki Takei in September. This is a rematch as former world champion Higa and Tsutsumi fought to a 10-round majority draw back in October, 2020 with scores of 96-94 Higa and 95-95, 95-95.
Tsutsumi vs Higa Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Daigo Higa +240
- Seiya Tsutsumi – 300
My Pick
Tsutsumi recently turned 29 years old and enters the ring on Monday night with a near-perfect mark of 12-0-2 with 8 Ko’s and has boxed 90 rounds since making his pro debut in 2018. He measures just over 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 64.5-inch reach. As far as power is concerned. Tsutsumi has quite a bit of it as 67.7 per cent of his victories have come by way of stoppage including four of his past seven.
The two blemishes on his record were two consecutive draws back in 2020. He went 10 rounds with Kazuki Nakajima in January and nine months later was held by former world champion Daigo Higa over another 10 rounds. Tsutsumi won the Japanese Bantamweight Title in 2022 via an eighth-round TKO over Kyosuke Sawada and defended the belt four times, twice by TKO and twice by unanimous decision.
Higa is also 29 years of age and has quite a bit of power in arsenal as he carries around a record of 21-3-1 with 19 Ko’s and has 136 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2014. When it comes to wins, 90.5 per cent of Higa’s victories have come by stoppage but he’s stopped just three of his past eight opponents and is 5-2-1 over that span. He stands 5-feet-4-inches tall with a 64-inch reach so gives up 1.5 inches in height and just half-an-inch in reach to the champion.
Since making his pro debut Higa has captured the vacant WBC Youth World Flyweight Title as well as the Oriental and Pacific Flyweight Belt. He became a world champion in 2017 when he stopped Juan Hernandez Navarrete in the sixth round. The title was on the line for Higa only as Navarrete came in over weight. He defended the belt by stopping Thomas Masson in the seventh round and Moises Fuentes in the first.
He then suffered his first defeat and lost his title when Cristofer Rosales halted him in the ninth round in 2028. This time Higa came in over weight and the title was only up for grabs to Rosales. Higa won the WBO Asia Pacific Bantamweight Belt in 2020 when he dethroned Yuki Strong Kobayashi by stopping him in the fifth round. He lost that belt in his first defence in April, 2021 when Ryosuke Nishida beat him via a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision. The lone draw on Higa’s record was the 10-round affair with Tsutsumi in 2020 and he also has wins over Froilan Saludar and Sirichai Thaiyen.
Prediction…
Both Tsutsumi and Higa looked very impressive in their last outings as Tsutsumi upset Takuma Inoue for the belt and Higa should have at least earned a draw in his slugfest with Takei. This has the potential to be a fight-of-the-year candidate if they can both replicate those performances as tyey both throw a lot of leather. There’s not much separating these two boxers and that’s evident by their 10-round draw in 2020. This is a tossup so another draw isn’t out of the question here. After witnessing their recent fights though I give Higa a slight edge here.
A pick-em fight with Higa having the edge in power.
Play: Higa +240 @ BetOnline.ag
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Daigo Haiga betting • Daigo Higa betting • Seiya Tsutsumi betting