By Rey Danseco
BAGUIO CITY – The newly crowned world class Filipino champions Draian Francisco and Bernabe Concepcion registered emphatic knockout victories against separate foes at the 2007 Panagbenga RP vs. Korea Boxing Classic card late Sunday night.
Francisco, who captured the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) Asia Pacific flyweight title in his previous fight, remains unbeaten and needed a little over three minutes to stop local fighter Edwin Tumbaga.
The 24-year old protégé of former two-time world flyweight champ Erbito Salavarria cautiously started the bout and studied how the smaller but stockier Tumbaga responded with his variety of punches.
The fleet-footed and power-punching Francisco, who nicknamed by this writer “Litte Espinosa” due to his boxing style being similiar to former two-time world champ Luisito Espinosa, easily found his range and rocked Tumbaga with a devastating right uppercut in the midsection in the neutral corner.
Before the hapless Tumbaga called Baguio’s bell to bell fighter recovered, Francisco followed up his onslaught with barrage of heavy blows, forcing referee Ferdinand Estrella to stop the contest at 55 seconds mark of the second round of scheduled 8-round collision.
Francisco improved to 11-0 with 8 knockouts. He won the WBO regional title last December in expense of Thai challenger Pichitchok Singmanassak, who he dismantled in round 7 in Mandaluyong City.
The 18-year old Concepcion needed to get up from a flash knockdown with right straight punch early in the fight en route to score an scary knockout win over Korean No. 2 and Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation No. 14 super flyweight contender Jae Chun-moon.
Coming off in winning the vacant WBC Youth super bantamweight title, Concepcion (20-1-1, 11 KOs), who nicknamed by this writer as “Iron Man from Binangonan”, caught Jae with solid right uppercut and followed up with straight-hook-uppercut combo.
The fighter from Seoul never went down despite of rubbery legs and glassy eyes with his back against the rope. Referee Bruce McTavish immediately saved Jae from further damage and stopped the carnage at 1:59 seconds of the fourth round of the scheduled 10-round, non-title bout presentation of Elorde International Productions.
Another new Filipino champion, Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) light flyweight champ Juanito Rubillar (41-10-7, 18 KOs) almost lost his lofty status as World Boxing Council No. 7 contender when he absorbed telling blows from ex-champ Larry Mede. Thanks to the cut from accidental headbutt, Rubillar earned a technical decision win at the end of round 6.
Rubillar, who Brian Viloria refused to fight in mandatory fight for WBC light flyweight title last year, suffered a nasty two-inch vertical cut above his left eyebrow from accidental clash of heads at the bell. He won the fight after judges Manny Mananquil and Ricardo Canlas favored him, 58-57 and 57-56. The third judge, McTavish had it 57-56 for Mede.
Reigning International Female Boxing Federation (IFBA) light flyweight champ Juhee Kim of Korea stopped inexperienced Filipina, Grace “Terrible raw” Chavez with body shots in round two of their exhibition bout set for four rounds with 1 minute and 30 seconds per round.
Concepcion won the WBC Youth 122-lb title also in his previous bout when he dominated previously unbeaten Joksan Hernandez of Mexico in the undercard of Pacquiao-Morales part three bout on November 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
