By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Another Filipino 19 year old, John Riel “Quadro Alas”  Casimiro hopes to follow in the footsteps of “Marvelous” Marvin Sonsona who, at the same age, won the WBO super flyweight title with a rousing twelve round decision over veteran Jose “Carita” Lopez of Puerto Rico last September 4 in Ontario, Canada.

Casimiro takes on hard-hitting Nicaraguan Cesar Canchila for the WBO Interim junior flyweight title in Managua, Nicaragua on December 19 in a charity event in memory of the late former world champion  Alexis Arguello.

Casimiro is undefeated with a record of 13-0 with 7 knockouts while Canchila has a fearsome record of 22 knockouts in 28 wins with only 2 defeats.

Filipino promoter Sammy Gello-ani who teamed up with internationally well known promoter Sampson “Picasso” Lewkowicz to steer Sonsona to a world title plan to do the same with Casimiro.

Even though the odds appear stacked against the young Filipino, Gello-ani told us he is ready and confident of being able to win the title despite fighting in the hometown of Canchila.

Gello-ani said “we are very confident in the capability of Casimiro, that's why we (Lewkowicz and Gello-ani) are co-promoting this event to make sure he gets the break he really deserves.”

Team Casimiro will fly to the US three weeks before the title fight and then to Nicaragua to continue his training.

The 27 year old Canchila is coming off a 5th round TKO win over Carlos Luis Campos last July 17. He had previously won the won the WBA interim light flyweight title with a twelve round decision over Giovanni Segura on July 26, 2008 but lost by a hugely controversial 4th round TKO in a rematch on March 14 this year after being dropped in the first and second rounds with the referee failing to stop the contest in round four even after the bell ending the round sounded no less than ten times.

At that point Canchila was coming on while Segura appeared to be fading. Segura is the same fighter who won the title with a 6th round TKO over Filipino veteran Juanito Rubillar last July when Manny Pacquiao's adviser Michael Koncz threw in the towel when he was not authorized to do so, creating another controversy.

Segura defends his crown against hard-hitting Filipino Sonny Boy Jaro on December 19 with Jaro himself involved in a managerial dispute with former manager/trainer Aljoe Jaro.

Casimiro, on the other hand, won his last fight by an 8th round KO of ASrdin Diale to win the WBO Asia Pacific title last May 28 after winning an eight round decision over veteran Allan Ranada just 20 days earlier.

Casimiro won the vacant  WBO regional belt with a 5th round TKO over Thailand’s Liempetch Sor Veerapol on October 3, 2008 . He had earlier won the Philippine Boxing Federation flyweight title with a unanimous ten round decision over Rodel Quilaton.