GE WENFENG BEATS SORIANO IN SHENZHEN, WINS WBO INT'L. TITLE
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 25 Aug 2018
SHENZHEN, CHINA- Ge Wenfeng of China exhibited his speed and heart against his feisty Filipino opponent Ivan Soriano and captured the vacant WBO International flyweight title after twelve hard fought rounds at the Shenzhen Bao?an District Sports Center.
The protagonists started at a fast pace with furious exchanges. Ge was the aggressor and sent Soriano on the back foot in the subsequent rounds. Ge pounded Soriano in the fourth but the Gen. Santos City Boxer managed to hang on.
In the seventh, Soriano caught Ge with a hard right counter and had the Chinese boxer reeling. But Ge managed to recover and regained the initiative at the end of the round.
Soriano was outgunned in the next two rounds but shocked Ge with a hard combination. Ge showed excellent recuperative powers and fired back in the championship rounds.
The scores of the judges ? Edward Ligas (Philippines) ? 116-110, Mark Leong (Macao) ? 117-111 and Surat Soikrachang (Thailand) ? 117-111.
The referee was Atty Danrex Tapdasan of the Philippines. The WBO bout was supervised by WBO VP for Asia Pacific Leon Panoncillo.
Ge remains undefeated with an 11-0, 6KO?s record. He has shown tremendous improvement especially in his footwork and ring generalship under his Ukrainian coach. He started to make a name for himself in China when he beat Amnat Ruenroeng, a former IBF world flyweight champion. Amnat lost to Ge by unanimous decision in Suzhou, China last November in a fight for the WBO Oriental title.
Amnat beat Chinese Olympic hero Zou Shiming by unanimous decision in Macao three years ago in an IBF world title defense.
Soriano is the third Filipino boxer beaten by Ge. He beat Joseph Omana (Jomanz Omanz) in 2015 and Melmark Dignos in 2017. Ge Wenfeng also spent time in Cebu?s ALA gym a few months ago, sparring with Milan Melindo and Donnie Nietes.
Soriano drops to his second career loss at 18-2-1,9KO?s. He previously won the vacant OPBF Silver light flyweight title last year by unanimous decision against another Filipino, Jaysever Abcede in Makati City.
Boxing insiders here in Shenzhen say that Ge?s camp is looking at the WBO world flyweight title fight between champion Sho Kimura and Kosei Tanaka on September 24 for a possible world title challenge.
In a slam-bang main undercard match, Ahatelike Muerzhabieke of China stopped Thai Chaloemporn Sawatsuk in six rounds to win the WBO China National super middleweight title. Both traded heavy punches from the opening bell without any regard for defense.
But Sawatsuk was knocked down once in round three and twice in the fifth. In the sixth canto, referee Mekin Sumon decided that Sawatsuk has received enough punishment and stopped it at the 1:38 mark.
For the rest of the card- Li Jiajia (China) beat Rivo Rengkung (Indonesia) by unanimous decision after 6 rounds, Wang Bo (China) won against Aleksei Podkolzin (Russia) by TKO in the first, Duan Guolin (China) lost to Diogo Reis (Portugal) by 4 round split decision , and the show was opened by female Chinese boxers Chen Zhengwen and Ouyang Jianping with Jianping winning a unanimous verdict after 4 rounds. The bouts were supervised and sanctioned by the Professional Boxing Commission (PBC) of China.
Photo ? Ge Wenfeng proclaimed victorious by Referee Atty Danrex Tapdasan.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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