By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Hard-hitting Ranee Ganoy put on a gallant fight but lost by a fifth round TKO to Australia’s rising star, Michael “Rocky” Katsidis in a WBO Asia Pacific title fight at the Convention & Exhibition Center in Brisbane, Saturday night.
Respected boxing writer Paul Upham reported that Ganoy who realized he was behind on points “landed a big right hand early in round 4 which hurt Katsidis” and the blow “seemed to anger the Australian who attempted to fire back immediately.” Both fighters exchanged solid blows on the inside before the Filipino “landed a series of left and right hooks followed by a huge left uppercut” according to Upham.
Katsides and Ganoy went toe-to-toe and while the gallant Filipino tried to fight his way out of trouble Katsides caught him with a series of brutal punches that signaled the beginning of the end for Ganoy. A big right hand and a series of hooks had Ganoy in trouble forcing referee Chris Daley to call a halt at 2:03 mark of the fifth round.
At the time of the stoppage Katsidis was leading on the scorecards of all three judges due mainly to the fact that Ganoy was downed by more of a push in round two than a clear knockdown. While Adriam Cairns had the Aussie ahead 39-36 judges Cyril Cairns and Phil Austin had Katsidis up by only one point, 38-37.
Ganoy who is now reportedly based in Australia with manager Dido Bohol was coming off three successive stoppage victories. He scored a fifth round TKO over Australian champion Mick Shaw and a fifth round KO over another champion Allan Luxford and then captured the WBC regional belt by knocking out Yohannes Sheferaw last May 20.
Sydney Olympian Katsidis improved his undefeated record to 18-0 with 16 KO’s while Ganoy dropped to 17-10-2 with 14 KO’s.
