Dmitry Pirog's unanimous points victory over Japanese contender Nobuhiro Ishida to retain his WBO middleweight belt was thoroughly deserved, the Russian's promoter told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

Pirog took his perfect record to 20 wins, 15 by way of knockout, in Tuesday's fight in Moscow.

It was an eighth career loss for Ishida, who has 24 victories in 34 fights.

The Pirog camp had warned before the bout not to expect a knockout against such a tough opponent, and it proved to be the case, but the Russian dictated the fight from the first bell, landing the more decisive punches in each round.

The judges scores it 119-109, 117-111 and 120-108 in Pirog's favor.

"The result is absolutely justified," Pirog's promoter Kirill Pchenlikov said "The fight followed our scenario, and all along I never had any doubts as to the outcome."

Ishida was seriously rocked in the final round, and might have hit the canvas had it been 30 seconds longer.

"Dima had everything he needed for a knockout, but Ishida has a strong head, he can really take a punch. It's tough to knockout this kind of boxer," Pchelnikov said.

After the bout Pirog said a unification fight with Australia’s IBF champion Daniel Geale was "90 percent certain" to take place in the United States in late August.

He took the WBO belt in 2010 by conquering American Daniel Jacobs by way of a fifth-round knockout.

Pirog's previous bout was a tenth-round technical knockout of compatriot Gennady Martirosyan in the Russian city of Krasnodar in September.

Ishida had last fought in February, beating U.S. fighter Paul Williams on a unanimous decision to take the vacant WBA International Silver middleweight title.