Pinoy Fighters Futility Record Against Japanese Foes Continue
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 29 Feb 2020
Pumicpic (R).
Former world rated Filipino featherweight fighter Richard Pumicpic suffered his third straight heart breaking close defeat in Japan recently, extending the Pinoys losing record against their Japanese opponents in major ring confrontations since the middle of last year.
Pumicpic dropped a close but unanimous eight round decision to Daisuke Watanabe Thursday night at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo with the all Japanese panel of judges scoring the fight by an average margin of three points in favor of their home fighter.
Pumicpic broke into the world ratings in 2017 following a fighting decision loss to Mexican former world title challenger Cesar Juarez and a smashing victory over Japanese Musashi Amagasa, another erstwhile title challenger, to win the WBO Asia Pacific featherweight championship the same year.
Juarez fought and lost to Nonito Donaire for the then vacant WBO super bantamweight title in 2016 while Amagasa challenged and lost to Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux for the same title a year earlier.
Pumicpic also holds earlier wins over seasoned international ring campaigner Roli Gasca and Joe Noynay, now a world rated Filipino super featherweight.
After successfully defending the WBO Asia Pacific title with points win over Yoshimitsu Kimura in 2018, Pumicpic lost it to Musashi Mori by disputed technical decision early in 2019.
Pumicpic attempted to regain the title but Mori frustrated his bid via close 12 round split decision late last year.
With the defeat, Pumicpic's record impaired to now 21 wins, 11 losses and 2 draws.
Another Filipino who saw action in the card, Aristeo Aton lost by 3rd round technical knockout to his Japanese opponent.
Two weeks ago in Manila, former WBO minimumweight champion Merlito Sabillo was knocked out by former WBO flyweight champuon Sho Kimura in the second round.
Since Kazuto Ioka broke the Japanese losing skein to Filipino fighters in world title and major ring confrontations in June last year, the fighters from the Land of the Rising Sun have generally dominated their Pinoy opponents.
Losers included Nonito Donaire, Marlon Tapales, Randy Petalcorin Froilan Saludar and Sabillo.
In world title fights, Donaire lost to Naoya Inoue and Tapales to Ryosuke Iwasa in November and Petalcorin fell to Kenshiro Teraji last December. Saludar lost his WBO Asia Pacific super flyweight title to Ryoji Fukunaga two weeks ago.
This does not bode well as in April, two Filipino fighters will go up against heralded Japanese opponents in important world title bouts with Johnriel Casimero colliding with Naoya Inoue in bantamweight title unification and Giemel Magramo clashing against Junto Nakatani for the vacant WBO flyweight crown.
We certainly have to urgently break this losing spell.
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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