By Ronnie Nathanielsz
In a story headlined “Another Mismatch Looms in Japan” last May 22, Manila Standard Today warned that Filipino flyweight Gilbert De La Torre who was scheduled to fight undefeated Japanese Shigetaka Ikehara in an eight round bout at the famous Korakuen Hall was involved in a mismatch.
The warning proved correct when De La Torre was knocked out by Ikehara at 1:45 of the second round on Tuesday night. The Japanese had won his previous four fights by TKO within a maximum of four rounds.
When Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today warned about the mismatch between Torres who had a record of 7-5-1 with 1 knockout as against the unbeaten Ikehara who had a record of 13-0-1 with 10 knockouts, Japanese Boxing Commission executive secretary Tsuyoshi Yasukochi in an overseas telephone conversation said the fight would go ahead because it was approved by the Philippine Games and Amusements Board.
In warning about another mismatch, The Standard noted that De La Torre had lost by a seventh round TKO to Japan’s Masaharu Naganawa last December 9 and in a previous fight on April 25, 2006 the Filipino had suffered a third round knockout at the hands of Thailand’s Saengpetch Sor Sakulpan.
Prior to the De La Torre KO, super flyweight Pingping Tepura who had lost in a brutal first round KO to world rated Bert Batawang on January 21 this year was matched against undefeated Japanese Daiki Kameda and lost by a third round TKO.
Tepura had a record of 10-8-5 with 4 KO’s while Kameda was undefeated in eight fights winning six by knockouts.
