By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Mark Jason Melligen who battles hard-hitting, 5’11” Mexican FECOMBOX light middleweight champion Michel Rosales on November 13 at the Mandalay Bay House of Blues in Las Vegas has shown devastating punching power in sparring at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas.
Former Cebu resident Tony Martin who together with ALA Gym head trainer Edito “Ala” Villamor are preparing Melligen for the stiffest test of his career following a four-fight winning streak in the US reported that they have been “pushing Mark to the very limit of his endurance and his response to the hard training has been total.”
Martin that while Melligen has shown great improvement since he first started training in Las Vegas his “confidence, determination and the will to win have increased ten-fold”
Martin said what impresses him the most is “the devastating power he has in both hands. Trust me Ronnie when I say get hit by one, you will go down and stay down.”
He indicated that Melligen’s mental and physical condition as of today is great. We have no problems, and we do not anticipate any, We feel very confident going into this fight with Rosales, by winning and winning well.” Martin noted that Melligen’s “jabbing, counter, combination punching, upper body movement, foot work, speed and defense, when they come together in sparring it is a joy to watch.”
The trainer conceded that his sparring sessions between eight to ten rounds have been hard and when they finish Melligen would have sparred at least 100 rounds with tough southpaw Said “Prince” Ouali (26-3, 18 KO’s), undefeated middleweight Dion Savage Jr (6-0, 4 KO’s) and Ramon Montano (17-7-2, 2 KO’s) over whom Melligen scored a handy eight round decision after Montano had given then WBC lightweight champion David Diaz a hard time in a ten round non-title bout.
Other Filipinos on the exciting Top Rank card will include stylish Z “The Dream” Gorres (30-2-2, 17 KO’s) who takes on relentless puncher Luis Melendez (26-3-1, 21 KO’s) and unorthodox Federico Catubay (25-15-3, 13 KO’s) who faces Alberto Rosas (30-5, 25 KO’s) in an IBF super flyweight title eliminator.Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler informed us that two more Filipinos are being added to the card. They are Rodolfo Sumabong, an undefeated super flyweight handled by Rex “Wakee” Salud and possibly Fernando Montilla, the former fighter of Lito Mondejar, a member of the original Team Pacquiao.
