By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Philippine bantamweight champion Michael Domingo retained his title with a rousing fifth round TKO over former WBC International champion Johnny Lear in Calarpe, Bohol Saturday night.
Showing how much he has improved since winning the title in a hard-fought battle against Joel Bauya on July 30, 2005, Domingo dropped Lear with a solid shot in the fifth round and then swarmed all over him forcing the referee to step in and stop the fight at 2:02 of the round.
Domingo was coming off a sensational shutout victory over the previously undefeated Miguel Roman (22-0, 16 KO’s), a protégé of Oscar De La Hoya, in the August 11 World Cup of boxing in which the Philippines whipped Mexico 5-1.
The only defeat suffered by the Philippines was the disappointing first round knockout suffered by the highly-touted Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista who was knocked out in the very first round by the menacing Daniel Ponce De Leon.
Although the record of Domingo doesn’t look impressive at 33-14-2 with 13 knockouts, he has been on a solid winning streak since moving to the ALA Gym of Tony Aldeguer.
The Domingo-Lear title fight will be telecast by Viva Sports on the top-rated weekly boxing show “The Main Event” over RPN 9 sponsored by Tanduay, the No.1 Rhum, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. It will also be replayed on the increasingly popular cable network Viva Prime.
In the supporting bout Marl Jason Melliguen proved to be a big disappointment scoring a ten round decision over the virtually washed-up Dondon Lapuz whom according to boxrec.com suffered his 26th defeat against only 11 wins with 7 knockouts in contrast to the fact that Lapuz had lost 12 fights by KO.
With the win Melligen improved to 9-1 with 7 knockouts.
