TABANAO AND DEMECILLO WIN OVERSEAS BOUTS
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 18 Mar 2018
Neil John Tabanao of the RWS gym of Cebu stopped his losing skid on the road when he knocked out Thai Rachan Yageow in a fight held at the Bendigo Exhibition Center in Victoria, Australia.
Their bout held Saturday was for the vacant World Boxing Foundation (WBF) Asia-Pacific super bantamweight title.
A video uploaded on social media shows Tabanao pounding his opponent with left and right hooks before finishing him with a hard right to the jaw. The video didn?t show what round the fight was stopped but trainer Brix Flores told this writer that Tabanao won in the third round.
Yageow won the WBC ABCO bantamweight belt in 2011 by beating Filipino Elmar Francisco by unanimous decision. Yageow is now 25-5,20KO?s while Tabanao improves to 15-4,11KO?s.
Tabanao previously held the WBO Oriental super featherweight title when he beat the previously undefeated Australian Ibrahim Balla in 2016 by TKO in the third round.
But Tabanao would lose in his next bout by unanimous decision to Isaac Dogboe in Ghana. Dogboe is now the WBO interim world junior featherweight titleholder after stopping Mexican Cesar Juarez last January.
Tabanao later lost to Evgeny Smirnov by unanimous decision in Moscow, Russia and in 2017 to Teiru Atsumi in Osaka, Japan, also by unanimous verdict. In his last fight, Tabanao fought in Calbayog, Samar and returned to the win column with a first round stoppage of JC Macadumpis.
Former WBO world bantamweight champ Marlon Tapales was supposed to be fighting in the same card as Tabanao but his fight was cancelled after his scheduled opponent Rivo Rengkung was reported to have visa problems.
In Russia, another Cebu-based boxer, Kenny Demecillo of the Omega Gym knocked out erstwhile unbeaten hometown prospect Vyacheslav Mirzaev in four rounds in a non-title contest held in RGK KAPITAN Anaka.
Demecillo is a former WBA Oceania and World Boxing Federation (WBF) Asia Pacific bantamweight titleholder.
Going into this bout, Mirzaev was 10-0,1KO and had a points win over Anthony Settoul of France, who previously lost by TKO to Nonito Donaire in Macao three years ago.
Demecillo, now 14-4-2,8KO?s was earning a reputation as a crowd pleasing all-action brawler when he got derailed in Hong Kong, losing to another Filipino, Mark Anthony Geraldo by unanimous decision in a WBO Oriental bantamweight title fight last year. Demecillo bounced back with a unanimous decision win over Gerpaul Valero in Mandaue City last October.
Photo- Neil John Tabanao (left) and Kenny Demecillo
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