BANAL, PUNGLUANG BOTH GOING FOR A KNOCKOUT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 18 Oct 2012
With the two top contenders for the vacant WBO bantamweight title promising to go for a knockout, the blockbuster ?Pinoy Pride XVII? fight card with two other regional titles at stake promises to give fight fans a night of terrific action at the Mall of Asia Arena on Saturday evening.
Both No.1 ranked AJ ?Bazooka? Banal and No. 2 rated Pungluang Sor Singyu of Thailand predicted a victory by knockout.
In a well-attended press conference at the Midas Hotel on Roxas Boulevard, Banal said ?Magandang laban ito. Bakbakan talaga.?
A more mature and confident Banal said he ?came prepared to fight in every round. If I can knock him out in the first round, the second round then good. If not I will knock him out in the twelfth round. I am prepared to go even fifteen rounds? highlighting his fine condition.
For his part Pungluang said it won?t be a difficult fight for him saying ?I have seen Banal?s fights and I?m not worried. I will knock him out in the sixth round.?
The Thai contender?s statement drew an immediate retort from Banal who said, ?It's good he predicted the sixth round, then I?ll knock him out in the fifth. If he says the fourth, I?ll knock him out in the third.?
The charming promoter of Pungluang, Pariyakorn Ratanasuban, president of the big One Songchai Promotions of Thailand told the Manila Standard that Pungluang ?has been training so hard and for me as a promoter I expect to take the world title back to Thailand.?
She said Pungluang had trained in a Navy camp in Thailand and they found ?a good trainer with more experience and I put him in the camp so he could have more strength, more endurance and he had good sparring partners from the national team.?
WBO president Francisco ?Paco? Valcarcel himself predicted ?this fight will be huge? and called on Filipinos to support the fight card, a costly venture by ALA Promotions headed by its president Michael Aldeguer in cooperation with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN.
Vice president for Sports Peter Musngi said the fights will be telecast on Sunday at 10:15 a.m. on Channel 2 while being carried ?live? on The Filipino Channel all over the world.
Internationally respected referee Tony Weeks told us his basic philosophy as a referee ?is to allow the fighters to fight themselves and to maintain control of the fight of course and nothing goes above safety. As long as everything is going okay, the fighters are fighting and everything is clean, I?ll just allow the fight to unfold.?
In a fight that may well steal the thunder from the main event, popular IBF International featherweight champion Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista (33-2, 25 KO's) faces a career-defining challenge from Mexico's WBC Latino super featherweight champion Daniel Ruiz (27-5-2 with 19 knockouts while in another bout that's bound to bring the fans to their feet, WBO International light welterweight champion Jason Pagara (29-2, 18 KO's) battles Miguel "Hands of Stone" Antoine from Barbados (17-0-1, 9 KO's) . the current WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation lightweight champion who claims he is even better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Photo (L-R): WBO Vice-President Leon Panoncillo, ALA President Michael Aldeguer, AJ Banal, Pungluang Sor Singyu, OneSongchai President Pariyakorn Ratanasuban and ABS-CBN Vice-President for Sports Peter Musngi during Thursday's presscon at the Midas Hotel along Roxas Blvd in Manila. Photo by Dong Secuya.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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