It's Fine in Other Fronts, Little Better in Japan
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 28 Oct 2022
Raquinel (R) and Ngxeke in action in South Africa.
Filipino fighters did well in their overseas campaign the recent week with four winning bouts, two each in South Africa and Thailand and somehow showed improvement in Japan with a win and a draw against two losses.
The biggest coup was scored by world rated internationalist Jayr Raquinel (13-2-1, 10 KOs) who won the vacant WBO Intercontinental super flyweight championship in East London with a crushing second round TKO over erstwhile undefeated Landile Ngxeke (9-1,4 KOs).
There is was little in it in the first round but the southpaw Raquinel (52.15kg) scored with a good uppercut to possibly shade the round.
Raquinel, 25, came out fast at the bell for round two and pressed the action before scoring with a big left hook that sent the South African flat on his back in the corner. He managed to beat the count as the referee Lulama Mtya gave him plenty of time to recover.
However, the 27-year-old Ngxeke (51.60kg) was in no condition to continue and the fight was waved off at 1 minute 41 seconds into the round.
In the immediate supporting bout, fellow Pinoy Jake Amparo pounded out a 10 round unanimous decision win over another South African fighter Mthokonizis Ngxaka who was so winded in the last few rounds that he was forced to just hug and hold on to Amparo causing both to go down a few times.
Meanwhile, two other Filipino fighters emerged victories in Thailand with Ador Torres (5-4-1, 2KOs) knocking out Thai foe Worraphon Jesadajindawat while Fil-Am "The Fighting Doc" JV Tuazon (2-4-2, 1 KO) coming back from long inactivity with a hard earned decision over tough Nattapol Attachak in a round rounder.
But ring wins at first still proved elusive for Filipino boxers in Japan as one after another, hopefuls Giemel Magramo and Genesis Servania, both former world title challengers the past years, dropped their important bouts versus Japanese opponents at the famed Korakuen Arena in Tokyo.
Magramo (26-3-0, 21 KOs), loser by TKO in vacant WBO flyweight title contest against fast rising Junto Nakatani, failed in his attempt to win the OPBF flyweight crown losing a 12 round unanimous decision to another Japanese upstart Taku Kuwahara.
On the other hand, Servania suffered his second career knockout defeat, falling inside just four rounds against hard punching former IBF super bantamweight titlist Ryosuke Iwasa in a mysteriously announced bout at super lightweight.
Servania got acclaimed some years back when he troubled then highly regarded WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez, even trading knockdowns on the way to a gallant but decision losing effort.
But the Filipino was never the same in the succeeding years especially when he moved up to as high as super featherweight and later lightweight where he lost back to back to world rated Carlos Castro on points and by shock first round knockout to another undefeated American Andres Cortes.
But what was unexpected was Genesis losing by another knockout to Iwasa who was a contemporary when he was still fighting at super bantamweight.
Another Filipino former world title challenger ArAr Andales stopped the losing skid when he held to two round technical draw against tough Tsoubasa Koura in a scheduled eight round bout at minimumweight. Still sketchy are reports who and what precipitated the abbreviated stoppage of the contest.
But before the close of the week, a breakthrough was achieved when ZIP and Sanman rising flyweight protege Esneth Domingo (17-2) stopped former unbeaten fighter Jukiya Limura (now 3-1) at the same Korakuen Hall Thursday night.
Domingo downed Limura thrice, the first two coming from 1-2 combinations with Esneth connecting right straights to the head. The third knockdown came from an overhand right to the head which sent the Japanese sprawling to the canvas prompting the referee to stop the contest to save Limura from further harm and damage.
Domingo and his camp were jubilant with the victory, very rarely where there were smiles at Filipino fighters in Japan for a long time now.
But perhaps, the biggest smiles could be beaming from the people at the embattled Games and Amusements Board or GAB especially boxing division chief Jackie Lou Cacho Ornido who may be seeing their efforts to make our fighters fighting abroad more competitive starting to bear dividends.
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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