SANTILLAN, BARDON, RUBILLAR, MATSUSHITA OPBF BOUTS ALL SET
By Salven L. Lagumbay
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 16 May 2007
Four Filipino fighters are slated for their respective OPBF assignments, three of them defending and one challenging.
Rev Santillan of the Wakee Salud Stable goes for his old title when he challenges OPBF welter champ Taesei Marumoto on July 14 at the Amagasaki in Hyogo, Japan.
The 12-round scrap will be a grudge rematch between the two fighters, Santillan having decisioned Marumoto in 2004 back when the Filipino was still the OPBF champ.
OPBF flyweight boss Jojo Bardon, also of the Wakee Salud Stable, will defend his title for the first time in a grudge rematch with Japan's Masaharu Naganawa on August 19 in Gifu, Japan.
Bardon had won the OPBF title in his last fight against Naganawa, prevailing on a hairline split decision verdict over the unorthodox-fighting Japanese.
Juanito Rubillar, the OPBF light-flyweight titlist, is also set to defend his crown against Ken Nakajima on June 24 at the Nishinari Ward Gym in Osaka, Japan.
Rubillar will be making the initial defense of the title he won with a seventh-round TKO over Irfan Ogah last October.
Another Filipino OPBF titlist, bantamweight Rolly Matshushita (formerly Lunas), is also slated to defend his title on August 12 against talented Masayuki Mitani at the City Sogo Gym in Takasago, Hyogo, Japan.
Matshushita, who regained his dangerous form since hooking up with Japanese manager Naoyuki Kashimi, had previously dethroned Malcolm Tunacao in winning the OPBF crown.
Other Filipinos seeing action in non-title bouts in Japan are Gilbert De la Torre, who will take on Shigetaka Ikehara on June 4 in Tokyo; Jerope Mercado who will be up against Takuto Nanba in Kobe on June 3; and Jess Maca who will take on Sasha Bakhtin on July 1 in Tokyo.
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