CIVIL WAR: CASIMERO vs SULTAN
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 14 Sep 2017
CEBU CITY ? A fight that involves top Filipino contenders facing each other, which had been longed for by Filipino boxing fans for some time now, is finally happening this Saturday. And the protagonists, former two-division world champion Johnriel 'Quadro Alas' Casimero and the current IBF Inter-Continental super flyweight champion Jonas 'Zorro' Sultan sized each other another day during the 'Pinoy Pride 42: Clash for Glory' final press conference held at the Waterfront Hotel & Casino Thursday afternoon with Milan Melindo fighting Hekkie Budler for the IBF world junior flyweight title on the main event.
Casimero (24-3-0, 15KOs), IBF ranked No. 3 and Sultan (13-3-0, 9KOs), ranked No. 8, will fight to become the No. 1 contender of current IBF world superfly belt held by another Filipino Jerwin Ancajas. An all-Filipino world title fight will be historical since the last this had happened was when Pancho Villa defended his flyweight belt against Clever Sencio in Manila in 1925.
Casimero and Sultan were very minimal with their words during the presscon but the throng of hardcore boxing journalists that filled up the Caspian room of the host Waterfront Hotel were pregnant with anticipation and excitement.
?I'm going to have a good fight this Saturday because I've prepared hard for this. I invite everyone to see this fight because this will be a good fight,? Casimero, a veteran of many road title wars including the riot-plagued fight against Luis Alberto Lazarte of Argentina, said.
?Fighting Casimero for me is just a regular fight because I'm used to fight tough opponents here and abroad,? Sultan, who flattened his last four opponents on the road, said. ?If I win this fight. I wan't to fight all the top boxers in my division.?
?There were previous talks of matching top Filipino fighters against each other,? ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told the assembled media. ?But I said if there is no significance of the fight why do we have to do it? But when this came up, Sultan fighting Casimero who had already proven himself as a two-time world champion and here is this young lion [Sultan] who has also proven by winning fights abroad and beaten a former world champion. When this came up this is something that we thought that is really good for boxing.?
The Casimero-Sultan winner however may have to wait for their turn to take on Ancajas. Jerwin had just fought and won over his mandatory challenger Teiru Kinoshita of Japan last July 2 in Brisbane, Australia on the undercard of the Pacquiao-Horn WBO world welterweight fight. Ancajas is not due to fight another mandatory until nine months later (April 2018). Also there are reported negotiations for Ancajas to take on Japanese monster and WBO superfly champ Naoya Inoue for a Dec. 30 event in Japan.
?That's a difficult fight for Jerwin,? Sammy Gello-ani, Casimero's promoter who also helped promote Ancajas, said. ?We'll, if Ancajas loses that fight and if Johnriel wins on Saturday, Casimero will be Inoue's mandatory. That will be a fight that we can look forward to.?
If Ancajas remains champ, then it will be either Casimero or Sultan who will embark on a historic Pinoy vs Pinoy world title matchup.
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