By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Filipino super flyweight Fernando Lumacad, trying desperately to recover from his widely-criticized 3rd round knockout loss to Mexican warrior Jorge Arce last June 27 in Atlantic City, faces Mexico’s Juan Jose “Goofy” Montes on November 28 in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The 23 year old Lumacad who has a record of 21-2-2 with 8 knockouts is coming off back-to-back wins since the disappointing loss to Arce. He scored a 3rd round TKO over Rodel Veronque last September 3 although boxrec.com records indicate that Veronque hadn’t won a fight and was 0-8 in his career.

However,  Lumacad who is regarded more of a technically sound boxer than a hard puncher, scored a ten-round unanimous decision in a  fairly close bout against tough Nino Suelo last September 25 and is expected to go all out to redeem his reputation against Montes who has a solid record of 15-1 with 11 knockouts.

Lumacad’s manager Ken Smith informed BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that he would leave for the US sometime next week with Lumacad.

Smith who owns the American Boxing Academy in Digos, Davao in Southern Philippines said that after the Lumacad fight he would return to the Philippines to meet with WBO Intercontinental champion Ramie Laput before leaving for Vienna, Austria for Laput’s title defense against Zsolt “Mr. Lefthook”  Bedak on December 4.

Laput who has a record of 38-3 with 18 knockouts won the vacant title with a unanimous ten round decision over fellow Filipino Donriel Marcos on December 21, 2008 and is ranked No. 4 by the WBO.

Bedak is ranked one notch higher at No. 3 and is undefeated with a record of 14-0 with 4 knockouts.

Smith who also handles Laput believes the Filipino will win against Bedak and said “When Laput wins we’ll be off to the big time for him and his team.”