Katsidis wins WBO Asia-Pacific lightweight title
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 01 Feb 2009
Michael ?The Great? Katsidis of Australia won the vacant WBO Asia-Pacific Lightweight title with a unanimous decision win over Spain?s Angel Hugo ?El Tren? Ramirez last Saturday at the Cebu Coliseum.
Katsidis was ready to rumble from the start and chased Ramirez who was more content in dancing and circling the ring. In the second round, Ramirez fell after being hit by a couple of punches to the body and head. He claimed it was a slip as referee Bruce McTavish initiated the count. Katsidis, however got a one point deduction in the round after hitting Ramirez when he was down again.
In the third, the Spanish boxer continued to dance away from the Australian. In the fourth, Katsidis knocked Ramirez down three times. El Tren still managed to get up and fight back at the end of the round. Katsidis continued his dominance in the fifth and in the 6th round Ramirez finally managed to land some counter shots but Katsidis again had no trouble finding his range in the final minute of the round.
Ramirez landed more effective punches in the 7th. In the 8th round a cut opened on the head of Katsidis just above the right forehead. He also had a grazed right cheekbone. But cutman Nonito Donaire, Sr. was successful in stopping the bleeding in between rounds. In the ninth, Ramirez tried to make a fight out of it knowing he was still behind but Katsidis remained the aggressor and landed the stronger punches. In the tenth and final round, Ramirez inexplicably was in survival mode instead of going for broke and continued his dancing routine.
The scorecards read: 98-87, 96-89 and 96-89 all for Katsidis.
The three Filipino Matadors all made impressive successful defenses of their WBO regional titles. Ciso ?Kid Terrible? Morales scored a fifth round TKO win over
Pitchitchoke Singmanasak to retain his WBO Oriental jr.featherweight title. Morales had a slow start until his right straight started to find its target on the Thailander?s face in the fourth. In the fifth Morales unleashed a heavy fusillade and knocked the Thai down. He got up but was pinned on the neutral corner with a barrage of punches prompting the referee to stop the contest as the bell rand. Official time 2:59 of the 5th round.
Anthony ?Rocky? Marcial made short work of undefeated challenger Thai Vacharakrit Senayan and retained his WBO Oriental jr. lightweight title via 1st round TKO. Marcial landed wicked punches from the opening bell and blood started to pour out from the challenger?s nose. The Thai did nothing but cover up and continued to take punches thus prompting the referee to stop the fight at the 1:58 mark.
?Marvelous? Marvin Sonsona, the WBO Asia Pacific Youth titlist, won via 4th round TKO over another Thai, Liempetch Sor Veerapol. The Filipino southpaw peppered his opponent with straight lefts in the first 2 rounds. In the third Veerapol collapsed under a hail of punches as Sonsona stepped up his offense. The challenger still got up but in the fourth round with blood trickling from his nose he was the recipient of more than ten unanswered power punches from Sonsona and the referee mercifully stopped the carnage at the 44 second mark.
In the supporting bouts, Kevin dela Cruz won by unanimous decision over Rolando Magallano in a bruising six round featherweight brawl. The scores: 58-55, 59-54 and 58-55.
In the first bout of the evening, bantamweights Marvin Mabait and Marco Demecillo fought to a majority draw. Demecillo was knocked down in round one. A clash of head in round two lead to a cut on the right eyebrow of Mabait while Demicillo was deducted a point. In the next two rounds, Demecillo chased and pummeled a tiring and fading Mabait all around the ring. The score cards read: 37-36 Mabait and two judges scored it 37 all.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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