A GREAT NIGHT OF BOXING
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 11 Sep 2011
ALA Promotions in cooperation with ABS-CBN can be proud of the ?Pinoy Pride VIII? fight card before a sell-out crowd that included scores of foreigners, many of them women, who clearly enjoyed the fights in a true Philippine-Mexican war at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino, Saturday evening.
Milan ?El Metodico? Melindo cut down the heavier Mexican Francisco ?Chiquita? Rosas with some vicious combinations in the early rounds before hammering the Mexican into submission at the end of the tenth round when referee Bruce McTavish called a halt to the obvious relief of the battered Mexican.
Rosas who originally tipped the scales at 117 pounds which was five pounds over the flyweight limit had said he was not interested in winning the regional WBO Intercontinental title but was determined to inflict pain on Melindo and beat him so he could enter the world rankings.
Melindo, a technically skilled fighter wasn?t prepared to let the bigger Mexican bully his way to victory and established his superiority when he bloodied the nose of Rosas in the fourth round with a stinging jab and a series of cracking right straights and uppercuts.
A wicked left in round five almost saw the mouthpiece of Rosas fly out as Melindo went after the Mexican in an impressive performance that showed he is ready for a world title shot.
Rosas was as game a Mexican fighter as one could find but although he fought for the world title three times and scored an impressive win over former world champion Jose Landaeta in a WBA light flyweight title eliminator earlier this year, he was dominated by Melindo as long as the fight lasted.
Ranked No. 5 by the WBO, No. 7 by the WBC and No. 11 by the IBF and the WBA, Melindo had previously impressed fight fans with victories over WBC Youth Intercontinental flyweight champion Carlos Villareal of the United States whom he dropped in the opening round, former WBA Intercontinental light flyweight champion Carlos Melo, former IBF minimum weight champion Muhammad Rachmannn and former WBO IBF light flyweight champion Carlos Tamara who had won the title with a 12th round TKO of Brian Viloria, the current WBO flyweight champion.
All three judges had Melindo way ahead at the time of the stoppage with Salven Lagumbay and Tony Pesons scoring a 100-90 shutout and Edward Ligas 99-91.
The Mexicans whose countryman Mike Lopez of Cebu helps the Hispanic fighters in the corner and waves the Mexican flag walking into the ring eventually broke his miserable 0-13 record when the gnarled toughie Rosbel ?Lobito? Montoya carved out a well-deserved ten round decision over young junior lightweight Jason Pagara who suffered only his second loss in a career of 27 wins with 16 knockouts.
Montoya, the reigning WBC Fecombox champion whose confidence was sparked by a record of 29 knockouts un 34 wins with only 4 defeats and 1 draw, demonstrated his punching power and accuracy as he repeatedly rocked the head of Pagara back with a vicious left jab and terrific combinations.
Pagara tried his best and threw several flurries to the body but didn?t seem to hurt Montoya who won a unanimous ten round decision that reinforced the fact that foreign fighters are seldom if ever victims of a hometown decision in the Philippines.
All three judges had Montoya the winner by margins of 99-91, 97-93 and 96-94.
Because the Mexican came in one pound over the 140 limit, he didn?t win the WBO Youth Asia Pacific title which was declared vacant.
Bacolod boy Genesis Servania showed grim determination to get the better of Mexican veteran Gerson ?El Nene? Guerrero who tried but failed to shed off the ring rust of a two year absence although he did engage the aggressive Servania in some exciting exchanges.
All three judges Ben Necessario 79-73, Arnel Pasion 78-74 and Noel Flores 80-72 scored the fight for Servania who retained his unbeaten record and moved up to 15-0 with 5 knockouts.
The only blemish in an excellent, action packed card was the judges decision in the six round bout between undefeated Roma Rate (4-0, 4 KO?s) who somehow eked out a unanimous draw against underdog Ryan Bongcawil (2-3) with all three judges turning in identical 56-56 scorecards in a light flyweight bout although Rate weighed 110 pounds and Bongcawil 111.
Rate was dropped early in the fight and was also slapped with a one point deduction for an accidental head-butt. Fight fans unable to accept the decision as Bongcawil often threw caution to the wind and engaged Rate in some wild exchanges booed the decision lustily for a few minutes.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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