Another Golden Age in PH Boxing?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 14 Apr 2021
Clockwise: Casimero, Gaballo, Dasmariñas and Donaire.
With two Filipinos holding part of the world bantamweight championship and two more getting the chance to join them, another golden age in Philippine boxing may be in the offing, this time anchored on the bantamweights.
Johnriel Casimero is the reigning WBO world bantamweight champion while fellow Pinoy Reymart Gaballo holds the interim belt in the World Boxing Council after serving in the same capacity for a time with the World Boxing Association.
Meanwhile, former multi division world champion Nonito Donaire, Jr. gets the chance to become world champion again as he takes on WBC regular titlist Nordine Oubaali of France on a date and venue still to be finalized.
On the other hand, former IBO world titleholder Michael Dasmariñas is scheduled to challenge WBA-IBF and Ring Magazine champion Naoya Inoue on June 19 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
We never had it so good as now.
In fact, this situation is unprecedented especially in the post war period following Luisito Espinosa's initial success in the erstwhile waterloo division for Filipino fighters. Espinosa won officially the country's first world crown at 118lbs in 1989 by shock first round knockout over Thailand's Khaokor Galaxy in Bangkok.
Gerry Peñalosa followed suit in 2004 by wresting the WBO crown by late round body shot knockout of Mexican Jhonny Gonzalez. Donaire himself was two time world bantamweight champion, first in 2011 when he knocked out Mexican Fernando Montiel for the WBC and WBO unified belts which he vacated later and next in 2018 when he returned to 118 and won the WBA super belt by stopping UK's Ryan Burnett. He lost that belt to Inoue in late 2019.
Casimero won the WBO title by second round knockout over the previously highly touted South African Zolani Tete in late 2019. He has defended the same last year, stopping previously undefeated Ghanaian challenger Duke Micah.
Gaballo, as a late substitute for Donaire, won the WBC interim world bantamweight championship by outpointing Puerto Rico's Emmanuel Rodriguez over 12 rounds last year.
With two world titlists and possibly two more joining them, the Philippines indeed has never been this successful in the bantamweight class or any weight division for that matter.
However, old timers said the country enjoyed a parallel before the war when fighters as Little Dado (Eleuterio Zapanta), Small Montana (Benjamin Gan), Speedy Dado (Diosdado Posadas), Pablo Dano, Rush Dalma (Dalmacio de Luna), Star Frisco (Francisco Yaba) and Little Pancho (Eulogio Villaruel Tingson) were crowding and even fighting among themselves for honors in the division, with most of them winning recognition as "world champion".
These group formed part of the initial waves of Filipino fighters that were sent to the US that also included Pancho Villa (Francisco Guilledo) who became the Philippines and Asia's first world pro boxing champion in 1922 and later Cipriano AKA Ceferino Garcia who won the country's only and also Asia's first world middleweight championship in 1939.
Though most of these group initially fought as flyweights, many of them later made their mark in the bantamweight as in the case today with Donaire and Casimero.
Of this lot, most successful was Little Dado who won recognition as world bantamweight champion by the California State Athletic Commission in 1940 and later as legitimate world flyweight champion in 1941. He even desired to become the first triple world division champion by fighting at featherweight but he was not as lucky. In 1996, the Ring Magazine named Dado as the fifth greatest fighter from the Philippines.
Next is Speedy Dado who contended for the world flyweight, bantamweight and even featherweight championships in the US and despite being unsuccessful in his attempts, held wins over world champions Midget Wolgast and Panama Al Brown and distinguished himself well in losses. He lost to Pablo Dano in their fight for California State Athletic Commission version of the world featherweight title in his final fight that involved more than 100 bouts.
Rush Dalma, Little Pancho and Star Frisco also won unofficial world championships in the bantamweight class as recognized by State Commissions and Australia.
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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