FARENAS KO’S THAI PATSY IN ONE ROUND
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 10 Jan 2010
Michael Farenas, the featherweight prot?g? of former two-division world champion Gerry Penalosa scored a first round knockout over Thai patsy Sathian Sokham before a good crowd at the Mandaluyong Gym late Friday to pad his record but to achieve nothing significant in his quest to move into the world rankings.
Farenas has, despite four impressive wins and a second round technical draw against far better fighters in the US, sandwiched his stateside exploits with fights against certified patsies who are a disgrace to matchmaking and a brazen insult to fight fans.
While some were thrilled at the quickness with which Farenas nailed Sokham with a stinging left straight that sent him reeling across the ring and almost through the ropes, most knowledgeable fans as well as officials said it was another travesty.
Sokham hardly threw a punch while the fight lasted and even though he rose at the count of ten tolled by classy referee Ferdinand Estrella he immediately collapsed in his corner again to end an evening of disappointing fights on a low note.
Sokham belongs to the stable of Win Panyaparichot who is known for his dubious deals in boxing that even led to his being banned in Japan but he continues to bring bums to the Philippines in an insult not just to Filipino boxers but most especially to boxing fans.
Sokham’s fight record even with the production of a xerox copy of his passport couldn’t be found on boxrec.com or anywhere else but Win produced a fight record allegedly from the Thai Boxing Commission, one of the many questionable organizations in Thailand, showing Sokham had a record of 18-8 with 5 knockouts . He claimed that in his last fight on September 10, 2009 he won a decision over Singha Seechaigym whose name and record also could not be traced.
With the worthless win Farenas moves to 24-2-2 with 22 knockouts.
In probably the best fight of the evening at least in terms of action, the Philippines No. 8 ranked Sonny Gonzales scored a 2nd round TKO over a gutsy Johnson Alde in a super bantamweight bout with Alde quitting on his stool at the end of round two.
Referee Danrex Tapdasan told us that after Alde was nailed by a series of vicious blows in the dying seconds of round two he checked with Alde whether he wanted to continue and he said “no.” Tapdasan said that “I saw that the people were entertained by the fight but entertainment must take a back seat over the safety of the boxer and since he told me he cannot go on I can’t force him to fight.”
Jonel Alivio banked on his power to score a 3rd round TKO over Vic Racoma while the bout between Eric Rapada and Jun Piasidad ended in a technical draw at 2:58 of the second round because of an accidental clash of heads.
In the curtain raiser of a short card which was attended by former Comelec chairman and Mayor of Mandaluyong Ben Abalos, Tiger City Boxing Gym’s Ernesto Saulong made a winning debut against Janno Bedrejo scoring a unanimous four round decision. Judge Romy Yulo scored it a shutout 40-35, while Gil Co and Edwin Sese had it 39-36 for Saulong.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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