Big Fights for Pinoy Boxers Abroad May be Harder to Come by This 2021
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 02 Jan 2021
L-R: Ancajas, Casimero and Taduran.
Unless mass vaccination against Covid-19 makes its desired impact in countries around the globe, economic slowdown and travel restrictions will persist which will, among others, make big fights abroad harder to come by for our globe girding Filipino boxers this 2021.
Pinoy fighters were comparatively luckier in 2020 than their regional counterparts in getting world title fights and major ring exposures overseas despite the debilitating influence of the pandemic on international boxing.
Our fighters figured in five title fights, mostly in the USA out of the possible eight that organizers still endeavored to put up in the face of constraints and challenges of the still raging worst ever global health crisis in a hundred years.
We won two, drawn one and lost two of those bouts but with the net of winning an additional world championship in the crowded bantamweight class, interim in nature it may be.
Title winners included WBO bantamweight ruler Johnriel Casimero and newly minted WBC interim bantamweight titlist Reymart Gaballo, both in the USA as well as Pedro Taduran who defended his IBF minimumweight crown with a draw in Mexico. Unfortunate losers were flyweight Giemel Magramo in Japan and super bantamweight Jeo Santisima.
Also winning big abroad were bantamweight Mike Plania, featherweight Mark Magsayo, welterweight Jameson Bacon and debuting pro middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial who will still go for the Olympic gold in Tokyo later this year.
Given those, it could be said that 2020 was still not a bad year for Philippine international professional boxing.
But what are our prospects for this new year, 2021?
Looking at the international boxing schedule for the first quarter of 2021, nearly a dozen of world title fights are already set including three happening right this weekend bannered by the Ryan Garcia vs Luke Campbell bout for the WBC interim lightweight championship, Rene Alvarado vs. Roger Gutierrez for WBA super featherweight title and Felix Alvarado vs Deejay Kriel for IBF light flyweight crown.
Also set are the Angelo Leo vs Stephen Fulton WBO super bantamweight, Caleb Plant vs Caleb Truax IBF super middleweight, Patrick Texiera vs Brian Castano WBO super middleweight, Joe Smith vs Maxim Valsov vacant WBO light heavyweight, Joseph Diaz vs Shavkat Rakhimov IBF super featherweight, Miguel Berchelt vs Oscar Valdez WBC super featherweight, Juan Francisco Estrada vs Roman Gonzalez WBC-WBA super flyweight unification, title fights.
Most of these will be held in various venues in the USA which by its leadership in the battle against the pandemic's impact on boxing and other games, has regained its standing as the world's sports capital, especially in professional boxing.
Likewise, major fights are also happening in Japan, Russia, Australia and other parts of Europe featuring among others Sergei Kovalev, Joseph Parker and Takuma Inoue.
What is noticeable is not a single Filipino fighter will figure in any of these scheduled boxing bouts. At least not in the next three months if we go by boxing schedule per boxrec.com.
Very much unlike last year when two Filipinos already were involved in two world title fights, with at least three more set to figure in then scheduled championship bouts by the next two months if not only for the pandemic.
However, based on recent publicity, four Filipino fighters may still figure in world title bouts but to be organized and held in the country.
They are Pedro Taduran who will be defending his IBF minimumweight title for the second time against mandatory challenger Rene Cuarto and the duo of top rated minimumweights Victorio Saludar and Robert Paradero who will be fighting for the interim WBA belt due to the continued inability of Thai titlist Thamanoon Miyantrong or Knockout CP Freshmart to defend his regular title on account of the pandemic.
If that will be the case, then well and good because for most countries, especially in Asia, that is already the recourse and trend based on the world title fights between Thai and Japanese boxers, notably Wanheng Menayothin vs Panya Pradabsri and Kosei Tanaka vs Kazuto Ioka.
However, such recourse will be hard to apply in the case of our other top flight champions as Manny Pacquiao, Jerwin Ancajas and Johnriel Casimero and top fighters as Nonito Donaire, Donnie Nietes, Albert Pagara, Mike Plania, Mark Magsayo and Edward Heno who are mostly signed up with foreign based promoters.
Fortunately, our WBA welterweight super champion Pacquiao remains a huge international draw and has the leverage in any negotiations. He plans to figure in two bouts this year, including unification versus either WBO champion Terrence Crawford or WBC-IBF titlist Errol Spence.
Casimero and Ancajas are committed to make high profile defenses in the USA and Donaire is just waiting for French regular WBC champion Nordine Oubaali to recover from Covid for their title go.
Nietes, Pagara and Magsayo are latched up with big international promoters and that would help them secure big fights abroad, hopefully for world titles.
But for the rest, big overseas fights may be harder to come by.
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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