By Rey Danseco
VETERAN fighter Nonoy Gonzales and little known Jonathan Ba-at both faltered in their bid for regional titles, but Rolando Gerongco saves the day for the five Filipino boxers who saw action on Friday in Thailand and Australia.
The current Philippine number three bantamweight Ba-at (8-1, 4 KOs) was good for only two rounds when he was knocked out by Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym for the vacant Pan Asian Boxing Association (PABA) super bantamweight title in Bangkok.
Gonzales worked hard in each round, but his best wasn’t good enough when he was almost shutout by local prospect Robert Medley for the Australian’s International Boxing Organization Asia Pacific welterweight title at Leagues Club in Wyong, New South Wales.
The judges scored unanimously in favor of 6-foot Medley for his consecutive defense. The scorecards read 99-91, 100-90, 99-91 to hand Gonzales his fifth straight loses Down Under and seventh loss in a row overall since July 2005.
But, the former Cebu-based boxer Gerongco was able to end his 15-fight losing skid since 2004 with a fifth round knockout of scheduled 6-round fight light welterweight fight against highly favored Mathew Paulley, former Australian light welterweight and IBO Asia Pacific welterweight champion.
Another fighter from Cebu, Pedro Malco and Zamboanga City’s Ariel Omongos suffered a contrasting defeats against local foes in the undercard.
Omongos, only 19, took his fourth successive defeats in as many fights in Down Under when he was stopped by Brendan Batty in round 2 of scheduled 4-round fight in the lightweight division.
Malco fell short, losing only by majority decision against former World Boxing Council featherweight title challenger Tommy Browne.
Two judges favored Browne with identical 78-74 decision. The third official saw it 76-76 draw.
