International Ring Success Eludes Pinoy Fighters
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 11 Sep 2019
Linares (L) defeats Toyogon in Japan.
Success in foreign arenas continued to be elusive to Filipino ring campaigners with only the best and battle tested among them consistently turning out better results.
This is again illustrated last weekend with all four visiting Pinoy fighters losing to their separate opponents in diverse foreign rings.
Particularly galling was the defeat of the highly touted world rated light flyweight Christian Araneta in Mexico to Daniel Valladares via retirement after four rounds of their scheduled 10 round world title eliminator on account of shoulder injury.
Our fighters and their handlers should take particularly note of the possibility of incurring shoulder injury during training or even out of the ring accidents as this had previously hampered or caused the defeats of many boxers including no less than our great Manny Pacquiao and Denver Cuello in previous world title fights.
We could now add Araneta to these prominent cases of ring losses on account of busted shoulder.
In Russia, Philippine lightweight champion Roldan Aldea went down in a 10 round unanimous decision defeat to unbeaten Uzbek Ravshanbek Umurzakov stalling his momentum following an earlier knockout win over erstwhile unbeaten Russian prospect Mikhail Alexeev.
Alexeev was the only fighter to have defeated Romero Duno who is now campaigning and making waves in the USA.
Umurzakov on the other hand added Aldea to his list of Pinoy ring victims that included Eden Sonsona, Rimar Metuda and Roberto Gatilyo Gonzales that exemplified our continuing record of futility in Russian ring.
In Japan, super featherweight fighter Al Toyogon was beaten by former three time world champion Jorge Linares of Venezuela by a whitewash unanimous decision. To his credit, the shorter Toyogon not only survived the veteran and more accomplished Linares but also had his moments, buzzing the Venezuelan a few times.
It was Linares first fight and win after suffering back to back knockout defeats to Ukraine's Vasiliy Lomachenko where he lost his lightweight titles and to Mexican Cesar Pablo Cano, a past victim of Erik Morales.
Finally, in Thailand, obscurant welterweight fighter Junjesie Igbos was knocked out in two rounds by former world welterweight title participant Tewa Kiram.
Given their low national ranking and poor ring records, both Toyogon and Igbos should have been deemed mismatches for their more illustrious opponents but they were allowed to fight on.
The GAB should therefore strictly scrutinize not only the qualifications but also and more so the physical fitness of fighters we send abroad regardless of their stature.
As consolation to Pinoy fans, we have some major fights held at home that included the blockbuster Taduran-Salva IBF minimumweight title scrap, the Giemel Magramo -Richard Claveras, Toto Landero- Joel Lino, John Michael Zulueta- Mark Anthony Florida, Jason Mama- Dexter Alimento and Rolando Servania- Jerry Pabila bouts won respectively by the crowd favorites Magramo, Landero, Zulueta, Mama and Servania.
The author Teodoro Medina?Reynoso?is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines.?? He can be reached at?teddyreynoso@yahoo.com?and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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