By Rey Danseco

STYLISH Filipino fighter Malcolm “Eagle Eye” Tuñacao and Nicaragua’s Luis Alberto Perez meet for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight title fight on Don King’s Pay Per View at the Chicago Bulls home court, the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois on August 13.

The clash will be the third title defense of Perez, a 27-year old, 5-foot-5 southpaw. Perez has piled up a record with 23 wins, one loss and 15 knockouts since he captured it from long-time champ Felix Machado of Venezuela via a split decision in January 2003.

Also listed in the card are two high-profile heavyweight championship bouts with Hasim Rahman and Chris Byrd facing separate foes. Additionally, two welterweight collisions are scheduled where Luis Collazo and Zab Judah put their titles on the line against opponents who will be announced soon.

Rahman, a former champ, takes on Monte Barrett for the WBC heavyweight interim title, Byrd puts his IBF heavyweight crown on the line against Serguei Lyakhovich, Collazo defends his 147-lb title in the WBA, while Judah will defend the the unified versions of the IBF, WBC and WBA welterweight titles.

Andrew Golota is also listed to fight in a scheduled 12 round bout.

Tunacao, a former WBC flyweight champ, latest fought on February 14 in Tokyo where he clobbered Takefumi Himeno in the nine rounds to improve his record to 17-1-2 with 12 knockouts.

The Mandaue City-native (in Cebu province, Philippines) is now ranked 5th by the IBF, 11th by the WBC and 12th by the WBO.

The Games and Amusement Board (GAB) boxing division chief Emmanuel Flores neither confirmed nor denied the reliability of the fight schedule.

“Tuñacao is highly rated in major boxing organizations and he has the credential as former world champions, so there’s a great possibility that he gets another shot beyond our knowledge,” Flores said in an interview yesterday.

Flores added that the 5-foot-7 southpaw Tuñacao is based in Tokyo, where his new Japanese manager comes from, that’s why they don’t have the direct information about his fight schedule.

“We will confirm all of this after Tunacao and his new manager file the boxer-manager contract within a week or two,” said Flores, who revealed that the new manager of Tuñacao is a good friend of ex-champ Gerry Penalosa and lawyer Rodrigo Salud, the former secretary general of the WBC.