PINOY PRIDE XVII: TEAM PHILIPPINES LINE-UP BARED
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 27 Sep 2012
CEBU CITY ? A star-studded line-up will represent Team Philippines against boxers from five countries this October 20 for the seventeenth edition of the very successful Pinoy Pride series.
The event will be headlined by the battle for the vacant WBO world bantamweight title between AJ ?Bazooka? Banal (28-1-1, 20 KO's) and Pungluang Sor Singyu (42-1, 27 KO's) of Thailand.
?I am in good shape and ready to fight.? Banal said. ?I now weigh nine to ten pounds above the limit, I will have no problem making the weight.?
Banal has sparred here in Cebu against Mark Bernaldez, Michael Domingo, Albert Pagara and Joseph Von Mi?oza. Trainer Edmund Villamor plans to trim Banal's sparring mates to two once fight day nears. He got a variety of partners to mimic the strong points of Pungluang.
Rey ?BoomBoom? Bautista (33-2, 25 KO's) will fight Daniel Ruiz (27-5-2, 19 KO's) of Mexico for the vacant WBO International featherweight title.
?There is less pressure for me now because I am not in the main event. To be honest, I would prefer to fight abroad because there is a lot of pressure for me here especially in my native Bohol,? Bautista said.
Bautista also talked about his wish to face Daniel Ponce De Leon, who just won the WBC featherweight tile in a rematch.
Jason ?El Ni?o? Pagara (29-2, 18 KO's) will defend his WBO International jr.welterweight title against unbeaten Miguel ?Hands of Stone? Antoine (17-0-1, 9 KO's) of Barbados.
The 24 year old Antoine has won Commonwealth zonal and WBC Caribbean titles. He is a bit of an unknown entity and has fought mostly in his native Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Pagara is coming off a career best win - a revenge sixth round TKO over Rosbel Montoya of Mexico last month.
Michael ?Bruce Lee? Domingo (44-16-2, 23 KO's) will face Mudde Ntambe Rabison (19-2-1,7 KO's) of Uganda in a non-title bout.
In his last bout, Domingo stopped Marvin Tampus with a single liver shot in Bohol.Domingo was supposed to fight Ghana's Joseph Agbeko early this year for the IBO bantamweight title but the fight was cancelled. Rabison has won titles in the African Boxing Union. Boxrec lists Stockholm, Sweden as his current address.
A fine addition to the line-up is rising prospect Marlon ?The Nightmare? Tapales, a former Philippine jr.flyweight champion. Tapales will face a boxer with only one name, Rasmanudin of Indonesia. Ramanudin (15-2-2, 8 KO's) sports the moniker 'The Lost Boy'.
The 20 year old Tapales (20-1, 6 KO's) was last seen in Liloan, Cebu last October 9, 2011 with an impressive performance against Martin Mubiru of Uganda. He said he had a win against Rex Olisa a couple of months later but has been away from the ring since. He has kept himself in shape by being a sparring partner in Japan.
?There is no formal signed contract with Tapales,? ALA Promotions CEO Michael Aldeguer stated. Tapales has fought under RWS Promotions and had one fight in Las Vegas. But fans who follow small fight cards know he has the counterpunching ability similar to a young Gerry Pe?alosa.Tapales was accompanied by trainers Juanito Ablaca and Eper Tepora.
Juan Martin ?Bai? Elorde (12-1, 5 KO's), the grandson of the late great Flash Elorde, is also set to fight on the undercards against a still to be named opponent.
?The Elorde family has done a lot for Philippine boxing? Aldeguer said. ?We are including him in this card because we want to showcase the best out there.?
Also penned in the undercards are Randy Bullong vs Kazuma Ejiri of Japan and Arjan Canillas vs Jake Sawangin.
Aldeguer also talked about their contiuing success in bringing boxing to the mainstream. He said that this will be the final Pinoy Pride event for 2012 but he did say WBO lt.flyweight champion Donnie Nietes is due for a fight in late 2012 or early 2013.
The ?World Trophy? will be at stake in this card. This is the trophy won by the Philippines last March 2011 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel by a score of 4W-1L against foreign opponents from Asia, Mexico, Canada and Tanzania.
PINOY PRIDE XVII: Philippines vs the World is set at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Philippine Team (L-R): Trainer Joseph Baldago, Michael Domingo, Rey Bautista, ALA President Michael Aldeguer, AJ Banal, Jason Pagara, Marlon Tapales and trainer Edmund Villamor.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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