By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The Philippines Leo Escobido has suffered a sixth round knockout at the hands of WBC Asian Boxing Council super flyweight champion Medgoen Singsurat (3K Battery) the onetime conqueror of Ring Magazine featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao, in a title fight at the Thaisaengyont Country Culture Center in Phitsanulok, Thailand, Friday. In a supporting bout another Filipino Ramil Anito was knocked out in the third round of a scheduled six rounder against undefeated WBC Youth super flyweight Fahpetchnoi Sor Chitpattana.
WBC official and well known Bangkok Post columnist Edward Thangarajah earlier reported that Escobido was “well under weight” when he came in at 113.5 pounds at the official weigh-in at the Topland Hotel while Medgoen “hit the button at 115 pounds.” Thangarajah noted that “usually Filipino fighters come to Thailand with excess pounds and struggle to make the weight and quite a few have failed in their effort and have conceded their challenges to Thai champions and have been forced to take part in overweight matches.” The manager of Escobido was quoted as saying the fighter was “worried about his weight for two days and didn’t eat too much” prompting the WBC supervisor to tell the manager to be “very careful and not to feel weak because Medgoen is a very strong puncher and could hurt Escobido” which is exactly what happened as the Filipino was decked for the full count at 1:45 of the sixth round after a furios, one-sided attack . The 26 year old Medgoen improved his record to 39-2 with 26 knockouts. There was some confusion over whether the Filipino identified as Leo Escobido was actually 30 year old veteran veteran Lee Escobido who is listed by boxrec.com as having a record of 33-46-3 with 18 KO’s.
Medgeon won the vacant title against Alfren Bulala on January 31, 2003, lost it to Joven Jorda on January 3, 2004 but once again regained the crown with a fourth round KO of Nonong Devilleres on March 26, 2004. It was Medgoen’s fourth successive title defense. Fahpetchnoi improved to 15-0 with 9 KO’s after putting Anito away with three successive right hooks.The Thai won the Youth title with a unanimous ten round decision over Jun Verano last May 21 and was coming off a third round knockout of Robert Rubillar on October 29 last year. Anito dropped to 16-22-3, 6 KO’s according to boxrec.com although it must be pointed out that the website records are not always updated and accurate.
