By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Undefeated Froilan “The Sniper” Saludar sneaked in a stinging left straight and followed with a cracking right hook that sent Remuel Obidos crashing flat on his face on the canvas to win the WBO Asia Pacific Youth flyweight title before a huge crowd in Imus, Cavite late Saturday.

The end came at 2:26 of the opening round with Obidos lying prostrate on the canvas for several minutes as Games and Amusements Board doctors headed by Dr. Redentor Viernes attended to the fallen fighter.

From the opening bell the 21 year old Saludar wasted no time in using his left jab to rip through the defense of Obidos and hurt him a couple of times with solid combinations before the devastating right hook dropped the 19 year old Obidos. Referee Sammy Bernabe merely went through the motions of counting Obidos out.

With the impressive win, Saludar improved his record to 9-0-1 with 6 knockouts while his hapless foe dropped to 7-3-1 with 2 knockouts.

The winner received the WBO championship belt from the organization’s Vice President for Asia and the Pacific, Leon Panoncillo, and a handsome trophy donated by Imus Mayor Homer Saquilayan who stayed throughout to watch the exciting fight card staged by well-known promoter Sammy Gello-ani.

In a somewhat disappointing performance WBO Oriental super flyweight champion John Mark Apolinario was held to a ten round majority draw by rugged Arman Casa whose style gave the technically sound Apolinario trouble . Apolinario's timing was off although he did catch Casa with occasionally fine combinations and cleaner shots but that was not enough in the eyes of the judges.

Two of the judges Epi Almeda and Ricardo Canlas scored the bout even at 95-95 while Salven Lagumbay had Apolinario the winner 97-93.

Top Ten Boxing stable’s Carlo “The Golden Boy” Suello lived up to his reputation as a promising super bantamweight with a 1st round knockout of an overmatched Anthony Balubar, dropping Balubar with vicious body shots to be counted out at 2:56 of the opening round. With the win the undefeated Suello scored his third knockout in four wins.

Undefeated Robert Udtuhan (15-0, 11 KO’s)  from Kenneth Smith’s American Boxing Academy in Digos, Davao was dropped by a body shot in round three but recovered to outpoint Rex Olisa (7-5, 6 KO’s) from the Gilmore Elorde stable who battled gamely but ultimately lost to a better fighter. Another undefeated fighter, super flyweight Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Angcajas (6-0-1, 3 KO’s)  had no trouble in disposing of veteran Julius Agcopra (10-26-2, 5 KO’s) in three rounds.

Cerilo Espino received several low blows, some of them borderline  but acted to the hilt in what many described as an award-winning performance to gain a 6th round disqualification over Rodynie Rafol in a rematch. Rafol won their first encounter by a unanimous decision.

Conrado Tanamor (3-0, 0 KO’;s) boxed his way to a six round decision over Jesame DeLa Zerna (1-0-2, 0 KO’s) while light flyweight Ivan Soriano (5-1,1 KO) showed promise in scoring a 6 round unanimous decision over William Andogan (6-6-3, 2 KO’s).