SPORTS SHORTS 282: ROMERO DUNO LOSES TO FRANK MARTIN BY 4TH ROUND TKO
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 02 Jan 2022
Frank Martin signaled that he is a force to reckon with in the lightweight division with a powerful fourth round technical knockout of Romero Duno Saturday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
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Martin (15-0, 11 KOs) dominated the fight from the start and executed perfect defense and counterpunching on Duno (24-3, 19 KOs). Martin floored Duno two minutes into the fourth with a pummeling left hand.
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Duno went up the count but went down again seconds later from practically the same left punch. Referee Frank Santore Jr. gave the mandatory eight count but waved off the fight with the recommendation of Duno’s trainer Osmiri Fernandez at the 2:54 mark to prevent further retribution.
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Martin, age 26 years, of Detroit, Michigan was a 2016 National Golden Gloves champion, and is now trained by Derrick James out of Dallas, Texas.
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The loss is the first defeat for Duno, snapping a three fight winning streak, since his first round knockout loss to Ryan Garcia on November 2, 2019, in the co-feature of the Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev fight.
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Martin was fighting an opponent who was perceived as the hardest puncher he ever faced. But the American gamely moved to prevent the Filipino from hitting him with his power blows. Martin, a stablemate of Errol Spence, under head trainer Derrick James, significantly outlanded Duno before the stoppage.
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Martin raises to 15-0 with 11KOs with the win, while Duno falls to 24-3 with 19KOs with the loss. Martin has started right on track his quest for Prospect of the Year 2022.
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Frank "The Ghost" Martin now has fought a total of 60 rounds for a KO rate of 73.33%. The southpaw is now fighting out of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
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Romero "Ruthless" Duno, age 27 years, from Cotabato City, has now fought a total of 107 rounds in 27 fights for a KO rate of 70.37%. The orthodox boxer is now fighting out of Miami, Florida, USA.
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Martin-Duno headlined a PBC on Fox in the undercard of the all-heavyweight Fox Sports Pay-Per-View event, the main event features top contender Luis Ortiz and former IBF titlist Charles Martin in an IBF heavyweight title eliminator.
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Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (33-2, 28 KOs) scored a thrilling come-from-behind sixth round TKO over “Prince” Charles Martin (28-3-1, 25 KOs) on Saturday night. Martin sent Ortiz down the mat with a shot behind the ear in round one. Ortiz recovered to dominate round two. Ortiz went down again at the end of round four.
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In round six, Ortiz landed a staggering left that crashed Martin with his glove got trapped between the ropes as he went down. Martin went up but Ortiz mercilessly attacked him and decked him again to end it at 1:37 of the round.
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Last August, Gilberto Jesus Mendoza, World Boxing Association (WBA) president, promised to start the title reduction procedure and has since fulfilled it. When the process began, the WBA had 54 champions which include 10 interim, 12 gold, 16 champions and 16 super champions.
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The first move was to eliminate all interim titles and remove the gold from world championship status and ordered mandatory bouts or box-offs.
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There are now seven divisions with one champion and there are 28 champions overall. There is still a lot to be done, but Mendoza is steadfast in his commitment to realize his promise.
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Japan’s WBO junior bantamweight champ Kazuto Ioka (28-2, 15 KOs), retained his title as he seized a unanimous decision, 118-110, 116-112, 115-113z over No. 6 contender “Little Pacquiao” Ryoji Fukunaga (15-5, 14 KOs), on Friday in Tokyo, Japan.
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The four-division champ Ioka, making his fourth defense of his title belt, is extra cautious, consistently scoring points without taking risky exchanges. Ioka absorbed the challenger’s less accurate combos but scored with more accurate and more effective combinations upstairs and downstairs.
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The 32-year-old Ioka would have been able to knock Fukunaga out his 35-year-old opponent nicknamed “Little Pacquiao” with more vicious combination of punches in the later rounds.
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But the champion did not go for the kill most probably because he wanted to be safe for the coming unification bout with IBF champion Jerwin Ancajas rather than go for a knockout that the fans would have wanted for the New Year's Eve.
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Thailand's Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Mexican Carlos "El Principe" Cuadras of Guamuchil, Sinaloa, will rematch for the vacant WBC super flyweight world title on February 5 at a venue still to be determined. Sor Ruengvisai and Cuadras fought 7 years ago won by the Mexican via eighth-round technical decision.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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