ROLLY LUNAS WINS AFTER ELEVEN MONTH LAYOFF IN TIJUANA, MEXICO
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 23 Aug 2013
Former Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation bantamweight champion Rolly Lunas who also fought for the WBA title but lost by a twelve round unanimous decision to champion Anselmo Moreno, has won an eight round bout against Mexican veteran German Meraz in Tijuana.
Lunas who last fought on September 23, 2012 when he successfully defended his OPBF title with a 9th round TKO over Ryuichi Funai won on the scorecards of all three judges. Carlos Flores scored it 78-74 for the Filipino while Jocelyne Ortiz and Diana De La Mora also had Lunas the winner by identical scorecards of 77-75.
With the win Lunas improves to 32-8-1 with 19 knockouts while journeyman Meraz drops to 44-27-1 with 23 knockouts.
After fighting out of Japan for some seven years Lunas moved to San Diego where he signed a management contract with Vince Parra who also serves as his trainer.
Parra was the co-manager/trainer of Mercito ?No Mercy? Gesta who fought for the IBF lightweight title and lost by a unanimous decision to Miguel Vasquez on December 8, 2012.
The Manila Standard spoke to Parra as he was boarding a plane for Dallas, Texas where another of his fighters was seeing action on Saturday.
Parra told us Lunas who has had a layoff of almost one year was ?a little bit rusty and fought a really awkward guy.?
However, he said Lunas ?got a workout I wanted him to get although he was a little frustrated as he was going for a knockout and may have been trying too hard to get him (Meraz) out of there.?
Parra said Lunas ?stunned him a couple of times ?in what he said was a good performance overall although the ring rust showed.
He said Meraz ?knows how to survive.?
Parra disclosed it was their first fight together and Lunas is ?getting acclimatized? to the environment in the United States.
The manager/trainer said ?now we?ll move forward and are looking at options.?
He said they are ready to fight any of the top five ranked fighters at 118 or 122 pounds and plans to put Lunas on in October in a ten round bout stating ?I want to make sure he stays busy. He is a sharp, good fighter with a great work ethic and is a good, strong guy. It?s a real pleasure working with him.?
Lunas who won the OPBF bantamweight title with a ten-round technical decision over countrymen Malcolm Tunacao on January 13, 2007 and after moving up to super bantamweight and losing in a title bid against Hiromasa Ohashi won seven fights in a row, six by KO or TKO and regained the vacant OPBF bantam crown with a 8th round knockout of another Filipino Jerope Mercado who was fighting out of Kobe, Japan.
Lunas also scored a big win in a title defense against fancied Kohei Oba (29-1-1, 12 KO?s) with an 11th round TKO on December 11, 2011.
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