PANONCILLO CONTINUES TRAILBLAZING EFFORT IN ASIA FOR WBO
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 20 Oct 2016
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico ? WBO vice president for Asia-Pacific region Leon Panoncillo Jr continues to register a glowing performance in the region for WBO-sanctioned fights which he almost single-handedly developed since early 2000 when the WBO, now widely recognized as one of the top four boxing organizations of the world, had absolutely no presence.
Reporting to the WBO executive committee and the general assembly during the first day of the ongoing 29th WBO convention here, Panoncillo said the WBO has continued to make inroads in the vast China market sanctioning 30 'League of Fists' fights, promoted by China's SECA in partnership with Top Rank Promotions, during the one convention year cycle. Panoncillo has also continued to work with other Chinese promoters like GWTS Promotions who stage its own 'Boxing Saga' series in Beijing.
Panoncillo also reported sanctioning fights in the region including historically boxing rich countries Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines, for its regional belts WBO Asia-Pacific, WBO Oriental, WBO Asia-Pacific Youth and the highly popular WBO International.
But the biggest story of the year for WBO was its big inroad in Japan, who until only a little more than two years ago, was totally closed to any WBO sanctioned fights. For this year's convention cycle (October, 2015 to October, 2016), the WBO has done an impressive five male world title fights, seven female world title fights and two Asia-Pacific title fights in Japan. Japan has currently two WBO male world champions in Jr bantamweight Naoya Inoue and mini-flyweight Katsunara Takayama and three female world champions in flyweight Nana Yoshikawa, mini-flyweight Kumko Ikehara and atomweight Nao Ikeyama. Japan also has one of the biggest delegations during this year's convention with more than ten delegates.
Another huge potential market for the WBO is India who, with the newly created India Boxing Council headed Brigadier P.K. Raja, has vowed, that in partnership with the WBO, to make India another hotbed of boxing in the region. The WBO had its initial salvo in India last July 16 when it sanctioned the bout between popular Indian former Olympian Vijender Singh and Australian Kerry Hope for the WBO Asia-Pacific super middleweight title which Singh (7-0-0, 6KOs) won by unanimous decision. Singh again will headline a Nov 25 card in New Delhi which will be promoted by Infinity Optimal Solutions (IOS). IOS managing director Neerav Tomar told Philboxing that IOS has partnered with Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions to bring more boxing events to India. Raja and Tomar are currently attending the ongoing convention in Puerto Rico.
Leon Panoncillo Jr (R) poses with Japanese boxing journalist and matchmaker Joe Koizumi who received the WBO Asia-Pacific matchmaker of the year and special recognition awards during the ongoing WBO convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At left is WBO executive committee member Danny Leigh of Australia. Photo by Dong Secuya.
On the side, Panoncillo also managed the boxing affairs for the WBO in Africa in the last year after the region was mishandled by its former WBO Africa Zone head Andrew Smale and made an immediate turnaround with 30 regional title fights.
WBO president Franciso 'Paco' Valcarcel quipped after hearing Panoncillo's report that he ?still remembers when in 1995 in Las Vegas, Leon and Danny [Leigh, also WBO executive committee member who helped Panoncillo in the region] approached me and told me they want to work with the WBO. Back then, they were just two kids. But now look what they have done, they're bringing almost half a million dollars to the organization.?
With China's 1.37 billion population, India's 1.29 billion, Africa's 1.26 billion and close to 2 billion people the rest of the Asian region, Panoncillo practically is in charge of three-fourth of the world's 7.4 billion population.
Financially, Panoncillo has brought $359,000 in sanctioning fees to the WBO during this year's convention cycle. But with the enormity of his geographical territory and the huge growth potential for China, Japan and India, Panoncillo has barely scratched the surface and in reality he may have actually just begun his real work.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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