MELLIGEN MAY FIGHT ON CONCEPCION-JUANMA LOPEZ UNDERCARD
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 16 Apr 2010
Filipino welterweight Mark Jason Melligen may fight on the undercard of the WBO featherweight title clash between countryman Bernabe Concepcion and champion Juan Manuel ?Juanma? Lopez in Puerto Rico in July.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who spoke to Tony Martin who handles Melligen in the US and worked out the promotional agreement for Melligen with Arum said that immediately after the 23 year old southpaw had scored a convincing ten round shutout decision over highly-fancied Mexican Norberto Gonzalez, Arum went to Team Melligen and ?congratulated us on a great fight" and asked Martin ?when could he fight again after Mark has had a rest in the Philippines "
Martin said he informed Arum that ?July would be good and he (Arum) replied OK, maybe he can fight on the card of Bernabe Concepcion in Puerto Rico in July.?
The Top Rank matchmaker who handles Melligen called from Brazil to congratulate Melligen on his performance and telling Martin how proud he was.
The longtime Cebu resident who lives in Las Vegas and helps train the hard-hitting southpaw along with his sons Edward and Matthew said they had done a great job even as he indicated he would like to retain Dr. Ed de la Vega who worked the corner with him as cut-man and according to Martin was ?a pleasure to work with.?
Analyzing the performance of Melligen who was strongly supported by a number of Filipinos who showed up at the Hard Rock to support him and lined up to take pictures and get his autograph after the fight, Martin said ?overall there was a marked improvement and I for one was more than happy with the way Mark handled Gonzalez? although Martin said he ?would have liked Mark to have thrown more body shots as I felt that would have broken down Gonzalez quicker, thus leading to a possible TKO or KO.?
The trainer said ?one thing for certain, Gonzalez is a tough boy as he took a lot of big punches from Mark, and managed to stay on his feet, even though you could see he was hurt on several occasions.?
In his detailed rundown to ALA boxing gym patron Tony Aldeguer, Martin said he noticed that in the fourth round Gonzalez ?threw a straight hard right which caught Mark flush on the chin but instead of backing off Mark came forward attacking with combination's forcing Gonzalez to back up. I now know that Mark can take a good punch, and has a chin but more importantly for me is the fact that he did not go into his defensive mode, but came forward in an attacking mode, with aggression.?
The longtime trainer also noted that Gonzalez could punch hard but that Melligen now has more confidence in himself and with ?a little more work on certain aspects we will be ready for better things.?
Mark, will be departing for the Philippines this coming Thursday the 15th of April, and will arrive in Cebu on Saturday 17th of April at 8:45am on flight PR 847.
Top photo: Referee Joe Cortez raises Melligen's hand after Saturday's shutout victory by the Bacolod city native. Photo by Rod Mijares.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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