LABAO, FRANCSICO, DEFEAT KOREAN FOES
By Salvador Lopez
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 10 Jun 2006
Rey Labao and Drian Francisco successfully passed their toughest test so far, defeating their Korean opponents in contrasting fashions in last night’s “Strike for Honor Philippines v. Korea” held at Cavite Coliseum, Bacoor, Cavite.
The 10-round main event between Rey Labao and Kim Suk-Kuk was indeed a thrilling fight until the last bell. Riding on unsteady legs in the last few rounds, Labao managed to hang on and escaped with a unanimous decision win, the three judges scoring an identical 95-93 in favor of Labao.
In the early goings of the fight, it was Labao who was controlling the action, repeatedly delivering hooks to the body of Kim while the latter was scoring a few shots to the head of Labao. When his attack to the Korean’s body was becoming ineffective, Labao turned his attention to the head of Kim. Scoring with those powerful shots, it looked like the fight might not go to the distance.
However, Kim Suk-Kuk proved that he did not become a bantamweight champion of South Korea for nothing. While taking the hard punches of Labao well, he soon began to make the fight more interesting scoring a lot of clean shots to the head of Labao.
The remainder of the fight was a give and take affair with the Korean having the better of it. By the seventh round, it was obvious that Labao was succumbing to fatigue with his legs shaking. As a result, he was soon letting his guard down allowing Kim to score uppercuts to his chin almost consistently.
The 9th round proved to be the toughest for Labao when he was hit by some really power shots to his chin that staggered him in all corners of the ring. Somehow, the bell certainly saved him in this round.
The last round was still a suspense to the crowd as Labao remained on unsteady legs and it was not certain at that point whether he would be able to finish the fight. Displaying grit and determination, he not only managed to survived the round but was able put up a fight to make it a close round.
In the end, it was a well deserved UD win for Labao as he was able to win more rounds.
In the supporting main event of the evening between Drian Francisco and Soo Jung-Jung, it was a wonderful a display of fine boxing technique by the pride of Occidental Mindoro. Using his stiff jabs as lead, he was pummeling Soo with hard body shots to the body and head right from the start while evading the latter’s punches with well executed defensive maneuvers.
Though the Korean just refused to fold from the beating, his corner finally and literally threw in the towel in the 5th round, giving Francisco a TKO win.
The fight between lady boxers Kim Jung Eue of South Korea and Elsie Quizon of Cebu City for the World Boxing Empire (WBE) Asia Pacific Lady Flyweight Championship resulted in a win by the visitor via a decision. Eue was consistently scoring light jabs to the chin of Quizon coupled with some not-so-hard shots to the body. Unfortunately for Quizon, she did not make the needed adjustment until the last round when she decided to mixed it up with Eue. By that time, Eue’s lead was on points was insurmountable.
In another fight, hard-hitting featherweight contender Michael Farenas scored a yet another TKO win against a game Jerome Arsolon. From the start, the two fighters were trading hard punches although Farenas had much the better of it in the volume department.
Soon, Farenas’ punches have taken their toll on Arsolon who was throwing less as a result of such. Arsolon, with an almost closed left eye, took a knee in the 5th round and capitulated.
The fight between Hilsan Berba and Longino Dimaano was won by the latter via a split decision. Using his superior height and reach advantage, Berba had done a good job stalking Dimaano for the entire fight and scoring some hard right hooks using his left as a lead. However, he was also negligent in his defense, particularly, bowing his head after throwing a straight, and he was allowing Dimaano to come up with those clean counters.
The fight was close although Dimaano certainly did better in most rounds. Two judges scored 58-57 and 59-56, respectively, for Dimaano, while the third judge scored it 58-56 in favor of Berba.
In the curtain raiser, Jason Egera scored his third consecutive 1st round TKO victory in a span of just over a month with he stopped William Canaya with a vicious bodyshot in 2:02 of the first round.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salvador Lopez.
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