ABANIEL LOSES WORLD TITLE FIGHT IN BUM DECISION
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 19 Mar 2008
Undefeated female boxer Gretchen Abaniel suffered her first defeat - not in the ring but at the hands of the judges - who robbed the talented Filipina of a well-deserved victory in a WBA minimum weight title fight against hometown girl Cho Rong Son in Seoul, South Korea.
From all accounts Abaniel was on the verge of a TKO victory when the Korean referee stopped the fight because of a huge lump over the left eye of Son caused by the cracking combinations of Abaniel who dominated the fight beginning the second round until the referee intervened. He called in the ring physician who took a look at the sorry state of the Korean champion and ruled she was not fit to continue at the end of the fourth round.
When they went to the scorecards as called for by the rules all three Korean judges scored the fight for Cho Rong Son which stunned Abaniel and her manager/trainer, former Australian fighter Terrance Mogg who lives in Manila and has a stable of top-class female boxers.
Mogg told Viva Sports/Manila Standard that Abaniel "dominated every round and everyone was shocked at the blatant cheating." It was Abaniel?s first loss on record after six impressive victories including 2 knockouts.
A superb boxer who throws rapid fire combinations and maintains the same aggressive rhythm throughout every round, Abaniel won praise from former world super bantamweight champion Oscar Larios and Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez who watched her put on a classic display of boxing during a fight card staged for the World Boxing Council convention last November 16 in Manila.
In that fight Abaniel scored a lopsided ten round unanimous decision over rugged Thai girl Lily Rachaprachagym to win the WBC International title.
It was the third defense of the title by the Korean girl who improved to 10-0 with 3 knockouts.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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