MELINDO PREDICTS 5TH ROUND KO
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 25 Nov 2010
CEBU CITY -- It was a more vocal Milan ?El Metodico? Melindo (21W-0L, 6 KO's) who faced the press Thursday noon during the press conference held at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel. ?Don't say it. Just do it. I'm a counterpuncher but I estimate the fight will only last five rounds.?
Carlos ?El Olimpico? Tamara (21W-5L, 15 KO's) of Colombia got to meet Melindo for the first time. ?I would like to thank God, and thanks to ALA Promotions for bringing me here. I trained long for this fight. I'm going to give it my best.? Tamara started training after he lost his IBF lt.flyweight title to Luis Lazarte in Argentina.
His trainer, Butch Sanchez feels that this will be the fight of the year here in the Philippines. ?We want to fight again here in the Cebu. We hope nobody gets hurt, boxing is a sport. Tamara doesn't feel he is behind enemy lines here in the Philippines. When we beat Melindo, he can fight with Tamara in the main event and Melindo as the co-main event. We feel that Tamara can be a world champ again.?
Sanchez also recalled the tears he shed after his boxer's come from behind win against Brian Viloria last January. ?I shed tears of joy. Tamara is like a son to me. Even his losses are competetive. He could easily be undefeated.?
By chance or by design, Bruce McTavish will be the third man in the ring in this fight. It was McTavish who stopped the fight in the dying minutes of the final round, saving an exhausted Viloria from further punishment.
ALA Gym trainer Edito Villamor said that Melindo had a god training camp. He already started training after stopping Jin Man Jeon. ?Speed and skills will be Melindo's advantage.?
Top photo: Milan Melindo (R, foreground) and and former world champion Carlos Tamara (L, foreground) pose with the IBC round girls during the press conference held at the Waterfront Hotel & Casino in Cebu City Thursday afternoon.
OPBF champion Rocky Fuentes (L) and Thailand's Inthanon Sithchamuang pose during the press conference held at the Waterfront Hotel & Casino in Cebu City Thursday afternoon.
OPBF flyweight champion Rocky Fuentes, who will be defending his title against Inthanon Sithchamuang of Thailand as the co-main event. Fuentes, who hails from Mambaling, Cebu, is excited to be fighting once again in front of his hometown fans. He has fought in Japan three times this year, winning the OPBF crown and beating two tough challengers.??I want to go up the world rankings and be a world champion? Fuentes said.
Both Melindo and Fuentes are ranked by the major sanctioning bodies. They are also ranked among the top ten flyweights by the Bibke of Boxing, Ring Magazine.
Also fighting in the undercard is former IBF world miniflyweight champ Florante Condes who will fight Kenichi Horikawa of Japan. Condes said he will try his best to give a good fight and continue his quest for another crack at a world crown. Condes was still in Manila but his opponent promised a good fight.
?We trained had and we will win.? Horikawa said through his trainer.
Former three time OPBF champ Randy ?Komong Bato? Suico will fight as a welterweight against reigning Philippine welterweight titlist Arnel Tinampay in an eight round non-title fight. Suico will try to bounce back from his split decision loss to Motoki Sasaki in Japan. Both boxers promised a good fight which could go the short route.
Dodie Boy Penalosa,Jr, the son of former two division world champion Diosdado ?Dodie Boy? Penalosa, will have his second professional fight against Jomar Torreon (superbantamweight 4 rounds) , Rey Melligen vs Junel Gadapan (lightweights 4 rounds) and Melvin Gumban vs JR Salvador (jr.flywieghts 4 rounds) round up the undercard bouts.?
The official weigh-in will be on Friday at SM Cebu City. Fight day is on Saturday at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel. Gates open at 5 PM and the first bout will be at 6 PM. Philippine TV coverage is courtesy of ABS-CBN on Sunday.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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