By Rey Danseco
ANOTHER potential world Filipino champion has stamped his class in his United States debut.
Nicknamed by this writer “Iron Man from Binangonan”, Bernabe Concepcion, only 18-years-old, inflected the first defeat of fellow young prospect Joksan Hernandez of Mexico, with a convincing unanimous decision win to capture the vacant WBC Youth super bantamweight title.
The 10-round title fight was held in off-television affair under the third fight between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales Saturday (Sunday in the Philippines) at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Concepcion, landing the harder shots, controlled most of the fight to earn his second international championship and followed another Filipino from South Cotabato to become the Youth World Professional boxing champion this year.
Two judges called it an identical 96-93 in each scorecard, with the third scoring 98-92, all in favor of Concepcion.
The 5-foot-4, stylish Concepcion improved to 20-1-1 win-loss-draw records with 10 coming by knockouts. Hernandez suffered his first defeat in 12 starts with six stoppages.
Early this year on February 24, Conception floored Chinese Wei Yang Jiang four times en route to a knockout win in round 7 and claim the Pan Asian Boxing Association super featherweight junior title in Shanghai, China. It was his first fight outside of the Philippines.
Concepcion duplicated the feat of Kidapawan City’s Lito Sisnorio last May in Bangkok, Thailand. Sisnorio dethroned previously unbeaten Fahpetchnoi Sor Chitpattana via 5th round technical knockout to win the WBC Youth flyweight title.
Sisnorio lost the belt on points in the first time he put it against another unbeaten Thai fighter, Panomroonglek Kratingdaenggym last October 5 in Thailand.
Binangonan is the town in Rizal province near Manila where Concepcion hails and training.
