By Ronnie Nathanielsz
On the same day that newly-appointed Philippines Games and Amusements Board chairman Eric Buhain was meeting with the so-called top honchos in boxing which regrettably didn’t include such respected boxing men as Tony Aldeguer of Cebu and former WBC founding secretary Rudy Salud, in a commendable effort to straighten out the mess in Philippine boxing, another Filipino boxer was beaten in Osaka, Japan.
Japanese matchmaker and journalist Joe Koizumi reported that the Philippines junior featherweight champion Alex Escaner lost a lopsided decision to Japan’s Nobuto Ikehara, a prospect with an impressive record of 21-1 with 16 knockouts who was making a comeback bid.
Koizumi said Ikehara “kept throwing busy combinations” to earn the nod of all three judges, two of whom scored it for Ikehara by a 97-93 margin while the third judge had it for the Japanese by a wider 98-92 score. Ikehara who was dropped from the top rungs of the ratings in Japan after an unexpected loss to Kyohei Tamakoshi in June 2003 has won four fights in a row.
Ikehara dominated the early rounds against Escaner and although the Filipino showed his punching power to come back in the middle rounds and even shook the Japanese on a few occasions with solid left hooks, Ikehara fought back to take the upperhand once again in the last few rounds of the ten-round bout to win a fight where the fans gave both boxers a round of applause.
