By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Japan’s 26 year old minimumweight Katsunari Takayama who is rated No. 11 by the IBF has met with a freak accident and injured his right hand forcing his handlers to pull him out of a scheduled tune-up fight against tough and durable Jayson Rotoni in Mandaue City on May 22, Saturday.
Takayama who just signed up with ALA Promotions and had been training hard for three weeks for his tune-up fight was reportedly jogging in the morning when his right hand was hit by a car according to ALA Promotions vice president Dennis Canete.
Canete said the fighter's hand was swollen and his manager didn't wish to risk aggravating the injury.
Canete told us that they were frantically looking for a replacement and one of the names being mentioned was Rollen del Castillo.
Takayama is scheduled to face South Africa’s Tshepo Lefele (17-3, 11 KO’s) in an eliminator for the vacant No. 1 slot sometime in August according to well-known South African promoter Branco Milenkovic.
Takayama has a record of 23-4 with 9 knockouts and his fight against Rotoni was eagerly anticipated.
On the undercard in Mandaue City, hard-hitting and colorful Larry “Bon Jovi” Canillas who is coming off a 6th round TKO over Tanzania’s Fred Sayuni in Dubai last April 23 after earlier scoring a 2nd round knockout over Thailand’s Petch Twins Gym on January 14 faces Dexter Mendoza while the entertaining Jun “Flash” Intor takes on Jason Tarroja in a six round bout. The fights will be telecast on the top-rated weekly boxing show "The Main Event" on Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. over RPN 9.
In the meantime, Colombia's menacing Luis Melendez is scheduled to arrive in Cebu on Friday for his Sunday night showdown against WBO Oriental bantamweight champion Michael Domingo.
There is a terrific emotional dimension to the fight as Melendez ended the career of Z “The Dream” Gorres who is a close friend and former stablemate of Domingo and will be at special ringside at the plush Pacific ballroom of the Waterfront Hotel to cheer his friend on.
Domingo earlier said that Gorres who scored a rousing ten round unanimous decision over Melendez in Las Vegas last November and given him pointers on how to beat the rugged Colombia prompting Domingo to state that Gorres is his secret weapon against Melendez.
The exciting fight card which will also include Jimrex Jaca, Jason Pagara and James Bacon will be telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN.