DIALE RETAINS OPBF FLYWEIGHT TITLE WITH COMFORTABLE UNANIMOUS DECISION
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 22 Feb 2016
Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation flyweight champion Ardin Diale retained his title with a comfortable unanimous decision over game, young Jonathan Francisco before a good crowd at the Taguig Complex on Saturday.
Diale who fights out of the United Boxing Gym in Malate was his usual calm and collected self in the supporting main event of an excellent United International Promotions card of emerging Japanese promoter Ryuta Kato and director Warren Evison of Britain.
Diale paced himself nicely in the early rounds before picking his opponent apart in the later rounds with stinging jabs and solid right straights and uppercuts.
Diale started slowly like he normally does and after four rounds was ahead 39-37 on the scorecard of only one judge while the two others had it even at 38-38.
Some solid body shots in the opening round by Diale and a comeback by Francisco who was ranked No. 4 by the OPBF set the stage for an interesting battle as Diale began to land some terrific jabs to slowly establish command of the fight and although Francisco countered aggressively, Diale deftly rolled with the punches to maintain his lead which was accentuated in round eight when he caught Francisco with a good right and a cracking uppercut.
At the end of the 8th round under the open scoring system, Diale was ahead on the scorecards of two judges by margins of 78-75 and 77-75 with the third judge having it even at 76-76.
Francisco began to slowdown noticeably by the 11th round and although he finished with a flurry in the twelfth and final round it was too little too late and Diale emerged a comfortable winner on the scorecards of Randy Caluag 117-112, Gil Co 116-112 and Nowel Haduca 115-113.
With the win Diale who won the title with a unanimous twelve round decision over tough Renoel Pael last December 2, improved his record to 30-9-3 with 15 knockouts while Francisco from the Juanito Ablaca Boxing Stable in Liloan, Cebu dropped to 8-5-1 with 2 knockouts.
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