ROSALES REVIVES CAREER WITH BALLA KO
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 12 Mar 2018
Eight months after suffering his first career loss, Jessie Cris Rosales came up with a stunning knockout win over the hometown favorite Ibrahim Balla of Australia at the Grand Star Receptions, Altona North, Victoria, Australia.
Rosales had twenty-one wins and a draw under his belt when he was pitted against former two division world champion Jhonny Gonzalez of Mexico last July in a WBC regional bout held in Chihuahua, Mexico. Rosales was knocked out in the second round and boxing pundits thought that despite his unblemished record, he was way over his head.
The 36 year old Gonzalez is known to Filipino fight fans for losing his WBO bantamweight title to Gerry Pe?alosa in 2007 but he has wins over Fernando Montiel, Mark Johnson, Hozumi Hasegawa and Abner Mares.
The 26 year old Rosales didn?t see action after that loss but he was seen training in the Omega Gym of Cebu, waiting for another chance. Boxers are always one punch away from turning their careers around, and Rosales simply did just that.
Going into the fight in Australia, Balla was 13-1, 7 KO?s. His lone loss was actually at the hands of another Filipino, Neil John Tabanao of the RWS Gym, also based in Cebu.
Balla racked up four straight wins, including two against Filipinos Silvester Lopez and Virgel Puton.
Rosales and Balla were fighting for the WBA Oceania featherweight title.
It was literally a bolt from the blue. They were trading in the second round and right-left hook combo dropped Balla out cold.
The Omega Gym cornermen erupted in celebration.
This was reminiscent of the highlight reel KO win in South Africa last year by another Omega boxer, Jhack Tepora.
Qamil Balla, Ibrahim?s brother, had better luck when he beat Filipino Adam Diu Abdulhamid of the Sanman Gym by unanimous verdict in the same card.
Rosales is now 22W-1L-1D,10KO?s.
Photo: Jessie Cris Rosales (R) in action against Anthony Sabalde.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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