Mizuki Hiruta shuts out Gloria Gallardo in Long Beach

Mizuki Hiruta finished her American campaign for the year with the sort of cold, methodical shut-out that tells you more than any highlight-reel knockout. Under the lights at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, she retained her WBO and Ring junior bantamweight titles with a 10-round unanimous decision over Mexico’s Gloria Gallardo, all three judges turning in identical cards of 100–90. The margin on paper reflected what had unfolded in the ring: ten rounds, ten for the champion, and not a whisper of controversy when the scores were read.

This was 360 Promotions’ Hollywood Fight Nights in microcosm: a small studio setting, tightly produced for UFC Fight Pass, built around a fighter they clearly intend to turn into a staple of the US scene. Hiruta, 29, came in as the busiest of champions, making the sixth defence of the WBO belt she won back in 2022 and the latest of a string of appearances on American soil this year. The main event, scheduled for ten twos at 115lbs, topped an 11-fight card and felt very much like a showcase – but a showcase that still demanded she deal with a seasoned, heavy-handed challenger who had come to work.

From the opening bell, Gallardo did what Mexican visitors traditionally do: she put her head down, gloves high, and walked forward. Hiruta, a compact southpaw, responded by making the ring look that little bit larger. She slid around the perimeter, right foot constantly edging her away from Gallardo’s lead hook, pumping out a jab that was less a scoring shot than a measuring rod. Very early on, it was clear who understood the geography better. Gallardo’s attacks were straight-line marches; Hiruta’s answers came at angles, a jab here, a check right hand there, and the odd stab to the body when the challenger’s feet crossed.

The second round followed much the same pattern, which was good news for the champion and increasingly dispiriting for the visitor. Whenever Gallardo tried to increase the tempo, she found herself speared with the right lead and forced to reset, her feet momentarily tangled as she tried to quicken the pressure. Hiruta, never rushed, began to sit a little more on the straight left at mid-range, trusting that her judgement of distance would keep her clear of the swings coming back. The strikes were not wild assaults; they were chosen, economical connections that steadily banked rounds while asking awkward questions of Gallardo’s durability.

If the early sessions belonged to ring generalship, the fifth was the first to provide a clear jolt of drama. Gallardo, frustrated by chasing shadows, tried to barrel straight in behind a pair of hooks. She finally managed to get close, only to run into a perfectly timed straight left that met her as she stepped in. The shot sent her stumbling backwards towards the ropes and drew a murmur from the small crowd – the sort of punch that makes everyone wonder if the fight is about to change. To her credit, Gallardo stayed upright, rode out the moment and heard the bell, but any lingering doubt about who was landing the cleaner work had been settled.

By the seventh round, the price of that sustained accuracy was written across the challenger’s face. Hiruta, still working off the jab and the straight left, found another perfectly pitched left hand that smashed through the guard and immediately brought blood pouring from Gallardo’s nose. From then on, the Mexican’s features steadily worsened, the trickle turning into a smear. Both fighters’ tops soon turned red, though only one was consistently being hit. It never quite reached the point where the referee or doctor were forced into centre stage, but there were plenty in the building who would not have complained had it been waved off late.

What stood out in the last three rounds was the contrast in body language. Hiruta, breathing steadily, still happy to give ground when she chose and to hold centre ring when it suited her, looked like a fighter in command of her pace. Gallardo, now 31 and with a lot of hard rounds on her ledger, was plodding more laboriously, yet she refused to fold. She continued to sling rights to the body and the occasional overhand, hoping that one might break through the champion’s concentration. They rarely did. Instead, Hiruta picked her off with the same southpaw basics that had worked from the first bell, touching with the jab, stepping off, and slotting in straight lefts whenever the opening appeared.
There were no knockdowns, which speaks more for Gallardo’s resilience than any lack of ambition from Hiruta. The champion clearly respected the Mexican’s toughness and heavy hands, never over-committing in search of a stoppage that wasn’t strictly required. The result was one-way traffic with just enough peril to keep her honest. When the final bell rang, Gallardo turned to her corner with the look of someone who knew she had been second best but had earned her money the hard way, while Hiruta walked back to hers largely unmarked, the job done and another defence quietly added to the tally.

The announcement of the scores – 100–90 three times – merely put an official stamp on what everyone had already seen. There was no chatter about dodgy cards, no arguments in the aisles, just polite applause for a champion who had done a thoroughly professional job and for a challenger whose pride had kept her upright through a beating. Hiruta moved to 10-0 with two knockouts, cementing her position as one of the division’s most reliable operators. Gallardo dropped to 16-4-3, now on a run of successive title-fight defeats, but she leaves Long Beach with her reputation for grit fully intact.

Beyond the numbers, the evening underlined why Hiruta has become such a fixture in the United States this year. Now training in Los Angeles under Manny Robles, she has boxed four times on American soil in 2025, turning what was once a Japanese curiosity into a steady West Coast attraction. Her wins over Maribel Ramírez, Carla Merino and Naomy Cárdenas introduced her to different pockets of the California fight crowd; this latest success on a Hollywood Fight Nights card, with both the WBO and Ring belts at stake, only strengthens that foothold. In a boxing landscape suddenly rich with Japanese stars, she is quietly carving out her own lane at 115lbs.

For Gallardo, a former IBO flyweight titleholder making a second run at glory at super-fly, this may prove another hard lesson at the very top level. She could not solve Hiruta’s movement and timing. Still, she showed enough heart – and enough willingness to trudge forward through blood and clean punches – to remain in the conversation for opportunities just beneath world-title class. The gulf here was more about craft than courage. On a night when the champion needed to underline credentials rather than chase drama, that contrast made for a clear, clinical verdict and another step in a quietly impressive reign.