BOXERS DEFY HEAVY DOWNPOUR AT ALABANG
By Salvador Lopez
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 16 Aug 2007
It was ?boxing as usual? in Muntinlupa last night amidst the heavy downpour in Metro Manila brought by typhoon ?Egay? yesterday. The boxers fighting in the card braved the strong rains to put on a great show of ?fighting boxing? before a delighted crowd at the Morning Breeze Gym in Purok 7, Alabang Muntinlupa City, just beside the still waters of Laguna de Bay. The card was presented by Chairman Victor Ulanday as an important entertainment event to the city residents in connection with Purok 7?s observance of its barangay fiesta.
Fighting in the main event scheduled for 10 rounds in the superflyweight division, veterans Celso Danggod and Jun Eraham were slugging it out before the bout was stopped in the 4th round due to a huge cut on Danggod just above his eyebrow which was caused earlier by an accidental headbutt. Incidentally, in the second round, Eraham was deducted a point for intentional head-butt although it was a later accidental headbutt in the third round that produced the cut. As the number of rounds completed was not enough to warrant a decision, the bout was declared a technical draw. Prior to the stoppage, Danggod was imposing his will with digging punches to the body that visibly hurt Eraham everytime he absorbed those shots.
Eraham had to resort to some dirty tactics holding and wrestling Danggod, even occasionally headbutting, earning the ire of the latter. Danggod, upon the advise of his handler, Chairman Ulanday himself, managed to keep his composure and was determined to take care of business. Once again, he was pressuring Eraham with constant body punching until another headbutt aggravated his cut and unfortunately resulted in a stoppage of the fight. In the observation of this writer, Danggod, by chance, is often matched against opponents who employ dirty tactics and this fight is just another one.
The super-flyweight bout between Jongjong Gagante and Robert Rubillar was a tactical affair which, nonetheless, showed some flashes of brilliance from both fighters and keeping the crowd alert. Though Rubillar was scoring the more beautiful and crisper punches, often hitting Gagante with clean shots to the head and body inspite of the latter?s seemingly airtight defense, it was Gagante, being the bigger boxer, who was landing the bigger punches, a factor credited by the judges in awarding him a unanimous decision.
In a mini-flyweight bout, Keeward Meňosa scored an impressive victory over a game Manny Baguio stopping the latter in the fifth round. Meňosa was relentless in banging Baguio?s body which ultimately took its toll on the latter. Meňosa earlier scored a knockdown when a sneaky right dropped Baguio in an otherwise competitive second round.
In another bout, this time in the junior fly-weight division, former amateur standout and member of the Philippine boxing team Warlito Parrenas was dominating in his fight against Marlon Villanueva fighting his most impressive win so far as a professional. A combination toward the end of the first round dropped Villanueva although the latter did not appear to be hurt. In the second round, Parrenas stepped up his attack. Fighting a most aggressive fight, Parrenas repeatedly connected with vicious shots to the head and body of Villanueva and later dropped his foe for the second time. Villanueva managed to rise up immediately but visibly wobbly, his corner wisely signaled for the stoppage of the fight which the referee promptly did.
The 6-round featherweight fight between two Mindanao boxers, Eric Canoy and Jayson Layson ended in a unanimous decision for the former. Cheered by Zamboanga Congressman Ernie Fabian who flew all the way from the City of Flowers to watch his ward fight, the fleet-footed Canoy, a 1998 Asiad bronze medalist, boxed beautifully, sneaking in damaging jabs and oftentimes landing left hook counters to the unguarded face of Layson. He could not stop the onrushing Layson, however, and Canoy had to settle for a decision win.
The 6-round superflyweight fight between Sylvester Lopez and Michael Romulo was a give and take affair that saw both boxers landing hard shots that appear to have shaken each other. It could be due to excellent conditioning that neither boxer tasted the canvas. The bout ended in a majority draw, a most fitting result to an evenly, albeit, hotly contested battle.
In the remaining bouts of the evening, the stylist Agapito Bolima defeated Genesis Mabalot via a majority decision in a 6-round featherweight bout; Arvin Cruel decisioning Ryan Willis in another 6-round junior fly-weight bout; and Robel Villegas scoring a 2nd round TKO over Marlon Inocencio in a fight schedule for 4 rounds.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salvador Lopez.
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