Donaire-Casimero Could Have Been It But We Wasted It Away Big Time
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 04 Nov 2022
Last Tuesday evening, another of Japan's getting epic boxing civil war unfolded in Tokyo with fight enthusiasts elsewhere including quite some here in the Philippines eagerly following the event for all its action, worth and significance, which is huge.
WBC light flyweight titleholder Kenshiro Teraji faced equally highly regarded then still unbeaten WBA counterpart and Ring Magazine's lineal world champion Hiroto Kyoguchi in a highly anticipated unification match with the taller and quick volume punching Teraji prevailing by 7th round technical knockout.
The significance of the duel was not lost to many boxing aficionados including the Ring Magazine which reported the fight result few moments after it was concluded. I would not be surprised if Teraji will grace the cover of the so called bible of boxing in its next issue as well as barge into the Ring's elite top 10 pound for pound fighters.
Even here, many boxing bloggers as the hugely popular Pow Salud of Powcast Sport burned the night lamp figuratively to follow and cover that bout through legal and not so legal means. The bout was streamed through the DAZN which is available to subscribers in Japan and some parts of Asia.
It was the biggest All-Nippon world title unification bout yet, bigger I think than the Kazuto Ioka versus Kosei Tanaka two years ago which featured Ioka, Japan's first four division world champion against the then undefeated WBO flyweight titlist in defense of the WBO super flyweight crown he virtually inherited from our Donnie Nietes.
I already lost count of all major Japanese world title Ring confrontations since Yoshiaki Numata battled Hiroshi Kobayashi, both known Pinoy spoilers in the late 60s for the world junior lightweight championship he had wrested from our Gabriel Flash Elorde. Mind you, Numata and Kobayashi were just two of the then very few world class professional boxers that Japan had at that time but that did not prevent them from clashing.
Unlike us bleeding hearts Pinoys, for Japan and the Japanese, a world title bout especially if it is for unification between fellow boxers from their country is a high manifestation of honor, of being the best there is in the world.
We have avoided pitting Pinoy against Pinoy in world title fights from the time of Pancho Villa versus Clever Sencio in the 1920s until very recently through Nietes versus Aston Palicte for the then vacant WBO super flyweight crown and Jerwin Ancajas's defense of his then IBF super flyweight trinket versus Jonas Sultan both a few years back. Rare as they were though, none captured the attention of Filipinos, much less other boxing fans elsewhere despite Nietes and Ancajas already then esteemed topnotch boxers and highly regarded world titlists. In fact, the nonchalance was such even the American judges scoring the Nietes-Palicte fight called it a draw. Not much because of the lack of sanguine action but I suspect, plain indifference.
Two years ago, we could have made a remarkable difference when fight organizers in the US no less with ties to the biggest boxing promoters and powers that be, thought of suddenly pitting then newly crowned WBC bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (his third tenure if memory serves) against then surging WBO bantamweight kingpin Johnriel Casimero who was in a knockout binge no less in a potentially powerpacked unification.
I remember the organisers were so keen in putting up that match they were ready then to jettison no less than Guillermo Rigondeaux, the then still unbeaten world super bantamweight king who vacated and moved down to challenge Casimero in the originally programmed match up.
For a time, the Donaire versus Casimero picked on with interest even from not only Filipino and American boxing fans and scribes but also from Europe where both were then extremely popular as well as some enthusiasts in Asia including Japan which has Naoya Inoue waiting for the winner and survivor.
But what happened next was surreal, to say the least.
No need and use to point the blame but we blew the rare golden opportunity big time. And sky high!
That fight did not materialize.
Casimero went back to defending against the aging but still wily Rigondeaux in a sleeper. While Donaire made a pedestrian title defense against fellow Filipino Reymart Gaballo in an equally uninteresting fight.
Incidentally both Donaire and Casimero were never the same again as US fight organisers as well as fans seem to lose interest in them especially Nonito who went on to lose dismally to Inoue later.
Sayang!
Would there be a Donaire Versus Casimero next time?
Hope springs eternal, they say.
Who knows?
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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