LABAO TKOs MORENO IN "BABAG SA CALAUAG"
By Salvador Lopez
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 24 May 2006
Rey Labao repeated his mastery over Roberto Moreno by registering an impressive victory over the latter via a 2nd round technical knockout.
The scheduled 10-round fight, which incidentally was for the LUZPROBA Featherweight Championship, was the main event of the show dubbed as “Babag sa Calauag” (translated Fistfights in Calauag) held Monday night in the town of Calauag, the northwestern tip of Quezon province. The show was another promotion of Gabriel “Bebot” Elorde Jr. in coordination with Calauag Mayor Eric Entienza.
Labao repeatedly penetrated Moreno’s seemingly airtight defense with crisp punches to the face and heavy shots to the body of Moreno. So frequent were the body blows that they eventually took their toll on Moreno who went down thrice before Referee Abainza stopped the fight.
Meanwhile, Dexter Mendoza, who once challenged for the R.P. Featherweight Championship, effectively used his superior height and reach advantage in outboxing Michael Romulo of Cagayan Valley. This bantamweight bout was a typical fight between a tall boxer versus a shorter one. While Mendoza was using his left jab to keep Romulo at bay and to set up a big right, the vastly improved Romulo was using the right strategy of not fighting Mendoza straight up using instead a “hide and seek” style occasionally sneaking in some shots, even some sharp jabs to the face of Mendoza. Throwing more overhead punches and a quicker offense could have improved Romulo’s chances however. In the end, Mendoza was just too experienced for Romulo and once he found his range, he had Romulo in trouble. Scoring a knockdown in the second round, Mendoza eventually won via a unanimous decision with an identical score of 60-54 in all the judges’ scorecards.
In another fight under the flyweight division, Raymond Sermona scored a third round TKO over Elmer Marcelino of Pangasinan. Marcelino showed skillful defense in the early stages of the fight even to the delight of the crowd bobbing and weaving to make Sermona hit the air many times. But his reluctance to make his offense running gave Sermona too much of a freehand just throwing a lot of bombs without worrying any counter from Marcelino. Tired from defending himself and wore down by Sermona’s punches, Marcelino was retired at 1:54 of the third round.
Recapping the other fights:
The bantamweight bout between Hilsan Berba and Val Villorente ended in a technical draw when a clash of heads in the first round resulted into a cut above the right eyelid of Villorente and the ringside physician advised the fight to be stopped. Villorente was getting the upperhand when the heatbutt occurred.
Jason Igera won over Ian de la Pe?a via a first round TKO. Upon the sound of the bell signaling the start of the fight, the two fighters exchanged fiercely scoring hard shots against each other with Igera getting the better of it and scoring the KO a few moments later.
Norbin Morada scored a knockout over Nesjun Sosa. While aggressively pursuing Morada, Sosa left himself too exposed for a Morada sharp counter consisting of a four punch combination to the head dropping instantly to the canvas.
In the curtain raiser, Jeno Quiletar of Bangar, La Union won his debut fight over Christian Atienza via a UD.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salvador Lopez.
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