GELLO-ANI BELIEVES JESSE ESPINAS IS A WORLD CLASS FIGHTER
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 29 Feb 2016
Well known promoter Sammy Gello-ani believes Jesse Espinas who scored a spectacular 8th round TKO victory over previously unbeaten Paipharob Kokietgym who was ranked No. 2 by the WBO and on the verge of earning a mandatory title shot, is ?a world class fighter although he has had only a few fights.?
Gello?ani told The Standard shortly after his rival from Bangkok that Espinas ?will continue training and I am willing to accept any offer for a championship fight because I know he (Espinas) can deliver.?
Despite a 7 hour hour travel time to Surin where the fight was held, Gello-ani said he told Espinas he ?had to accept any difficulties? in an effort to become a champion.
Gello-ani told us that Espinas trains in his training facility in Misamis Oriental where ?everything is fresh and there is no pollution.?
He said the 23 year old had no vices even as he credited trainer Eduardo Suito for ?very good training? in preparation for the WBO Oriental title bout in which he dropped the Thai champion three times en route to the rousing TKO victory.
Espinas engaged Paipharob in several furious exchanges up close before the power of the Filipino dropped the Thai champion once in the third round and twice in the 8th round with some vicious combinations to the head and body giving the referee no choice but to call a halt as the hapless Thai champion was in no position to continue.
Espinas weathered some big shots from Paipharob but proved he was resilient and countered with awesome shots of his own to seal a big win for promoter Sammy Gello-ani.
Espinas stunned the Thai who was ranked No. 2 behind champion Donnie Nietes in the WBO rankings and was also ranked No. 6 by the IBF and No. 4 by the WBA and was previously unbeaten with a record of 32-0 with 25 knockouts and was known as "The King of Knockouts." He is 32 years old.
But he fell prey to the 23 year old Espinas nicknamed "Little Giant" whose record was a comparative unimpressive 12-2 although he did have 8 knockouts.
WBO Asia Pacific head Leon Panoncillo informed us that Espinas was previously world-ranked by the WBO but dropped out of the rankings after he lost to undefeated Christian Araneta who was a flyweight with a record of 10-0 with 9 knockouts.
Espinas is a minimum weight.
Gello-ani praised promoter/manager Kokiet Paniochyarom who ?accepted defeat without any remorse.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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