ABAPO LOSES BY 7TH ROUNDTKO IN WBF TITLE FIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 18 Feb 2007
Lanky Bart Abapo suffered a seventh round TKO at the hands of former British Commonwealth champion Fatai Onikeke in a WBF light welterweight title fight at the Knox Netball Center in Melbourne, Australia, Friday night.
Trained by Bohol’s sons Jeffrey and Hermie Bohol, the 29 year old Abapo couldn’t handle the punching power of Onikeke, a Nigerian who now fights out of Australia. With the win Onikeke improved his record to 19-2 with 16 knockouts while Abapo dropped to 17-8-3 with 12 knockouts.
The 23 year old Onikeke was determined to avenge his loss to hard-hitting Filipino Ranee Ganoy who also belongs to the stable of Dido Bohol who migrated to Australia some 18 years ago and has a stable of Filipino and Australian fighters.. Ganoy who is one of the most popular Filipino fighters based in Australia because of his rugged, all-action style had Onikeke in trouble in both the 2nd and 7th rounds where he was given a standing eight-count by the referee after a furious exchange in a fight that was regarded as the “Fight of the Year” in Australia.
Abapo was coming off back-to-back defeats having lost in his bid to win the Pan Asia Boxing Association title when he dropped a unanimous twelve round decision to Daudi Bahari of Indonesia in Singapore last June 15. In his last fight on November 24 Abapo lost a close decision to Ryan Waters in a six round bout.
In a supporting bout 20 year old Ariel Omongos suffered a second round TKO at the hands of Australian welterweight, newcomer Heath Ellis who improved his record to 3-0 with 2 KO’s.
Over in Brisbane, Jun Geraldino lost by a second round TKO to welterweight Andrew Gosden while Rolando Gerongco dropped a controversial split decision to Jim Savage with two judges, Alan Simpson and Allan Burford scoring it 57-56 for the Aussie fighter while the third judge Mark Osborne had the Filipino winning by a wide 59-55 margin.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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