STORY OF PHILIPPINE BOXING PART XXIV: ROLANDO BOHOL, IBF WORLD FLYWEIGHT CHAMPION AND ELORDE PROTÉGÉ
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 28 Apr 2020
Rolando Bohol was born on Christmas Day December 25, 1965 in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental.
Bohol trained at the famed Elorde Boxing Gym, with no less than International Boxing Hall of Famer world junior lightweight champion Gabriel Flash Elorde as his chief trainer.
He had his professional debut on January 18, 1984 and had a split draw with Bert Basco at the Elorde Sports in Paranaque City. He won his second fight against Ely Tabuco Tabuktol a month later on February 29, 1984.
In his sixth fight four months later, he defeated Bert Basco in rematch by majority decision.
After winning 13 fights, drawing two, he lost for the first time in his career, a ten round unanimous decision to Dadoy Andujar on September 29, 1985.
Bohol recovered to win over Paul Torres by UD, Titing Dignos by UD, Ric Santiago by 7th round TKO, and Rey Cogonon by UD.
He traveled to Sokcho, South Korea to fight local fighter Joon Huh and lost a hometown split decision n July 20, 1986.
Bohol successfully collected victories over Allan Makitoki, Mannaseh Base, Faustino Simbajon, Ademar Amad, and Rod Naiconi all by unanimous decision.
Chang Hi Choi of South Korea became the IBF flyweight champion with an 11-round KO win over Dodie Boy Peñalosa at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. Bohol then challenged Choi, who was on his first title defense, on January 16, 1988 at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The Filipino southpaw won by split decision. Korean judge Chung-Won Chung scored it 143-147 for Choi. While American Louis Race had it 144-141 and Filipino Alex Villacampa saw it 145-142 both for Bohol. He revenged the defeat of Peñalosa and Bohol became the new IBF flyweight champion.
Bohol defended his title successfully on May 6, 1988 by defeating South Korean Cho Woon Park via unanimous decision with scores of 149-133, 149-133 and 148-134 at the Araneta Coliseum. Park was floored in the very first round and Bohol was just simply overwhelming.
Bohol travelled to Wembley, London to defend his IBF flyweight title against previously undefeated and hard hitting Englishman Duke McKenzie on October 5, 1988. The Filipino champion had difficulty in making the weight and lost his belt by 11th round KO.
He moved up to the next heavier division and faced Thai Maphai Narachawat for the vacant Orient Pacific Boxing Federation super flyweight championship. Bohol decked the Thai in the second round and was in complete control of the fight. He won the title via 6th round TKO on April 22, 1989.
In August 4, 1989, he defended his title against South Korean Jong-Kwan Chung at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, Manila where the champion triumphed by majority decision.
Bohol lost his OPBF title to Tatsuya Sugi in his opponent's home turf in Fukuoka, Japan by split decision on December 17, 1989.
He fought big names and future world champions Russian Yuri Arbachakov (WBC flyweight champ), American Junior Jones (WBA bantamweight and WBO super bantamweight titlist) and Colombian Miguel "Happy" Lora (WBC bantamweight ruler) but was defeated by the three kings.
Bohol won by unanimous decision over Filipino former world champions Dodie Boy Peñalosa and Tacy Macalos. He lost also by unanimous decision to Gerry Peñalosa, the future WBC super flyweight and WBO bantamweight champion.
He garnered three impressive wins over his previous tormentor Japanese Tatsuya Sugi by 9th round TKO, Japanese flyweight champion Hiroshi Kobayashi by UD, and Mexican Simon Contreras by 6th round TKO.
This propelled him to another world title fight for the IBF world bantamweight championship but lost to hometown hero Orlando Cañizales by 5th round KO in South Padre Island, Texas on June 7, 1994.
His last fight was with Johnny Tapia the future WBA and WBO bantamweight and IBF featherweight champion. It was fought in Albuqerque, New Mexico, Tapia's home city on December 8, 1994. Bohol went down twice in the 2nd round forcing the referee to stop the fight.
He hanged up his gloves after the fight. He is now residing in Las Vegas, Nevada where he operates his own business.
Bohol finished his career with 52 bouts, 34 wins with 7 KOs, 15 defeats with 4 KO losses, and 3 draws per Boxrec.com.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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