Jonel Alibio Captures OPBF Title, KO's Matsuda in Six

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Jonel “Mulawin” Alibio has won the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation featherweight title with a rousing sixth round knockout over champion Naoki Matsuda at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

With the win, the 25 year old Alibio who was ranked No. 11 in the October rankings of the OPBF improved his record to 16-10-2 with 7 knockouts while Matsuda dropped to 33-9-4 with 13 knockouts.

The 25 year old Alibio has served as sparring partner for former world super flyweight champion “Marvelous” Marvin Sonsona before Sonsona won the WBO world title beating Jose”Carita”Lopez of Puerto Rico by a twelfth round unanimous decision.

Alibio who is handled by Dr. Rajan Yraola, has won four of his last five fights. He stopped Matsuda at 0:55 seconds of the sixth round in a fight refereed by Australian Brad Vocale.

Alibio was coming off a sixth round decision over Suor Carryboy in Bangkok, Thailand last July 16. Matsuda, on the other hand, won the vacant OPBF title with a twelfth round split decision over another Filipino VinVin Rufino on March 6, 2010 and successfully defended his title with a twelfth round unanimous decision over Korea’s Jung Suh Soh on July 3.