By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Philippine light welterweight champion Mark Jason Melligen (13-1, 10 KO’s) will face Ramon Montano in a 140 pound bout at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on the eve of the showdown between Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and Britain’s Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton.
The hard-hitting southpaw from the famed ALA Gym scored an impressive 5th round TKO over Mexican Gerardo Cesar Prieto at on a Top Rank card at the Mile High Event Center in Detroit , Colorado and earned the shot at Montano who has a record of 17-6-2 with 2 knockouts.
Montano was a onetime sparring partner of Pacquiao and dropped a majority decision to then reigning WBC lightweight champion David Diaz on March 15, 2008. Some months later Pacquiao battered Diaz into submission in nine rounds to win the WBC lightweight crown.
After his win over Montano, Diaz said “he was a real tough kid but my conditioning really played a part in the second half of the fight. I hit him with some good, hard combinations in the later rounds but he showed a lot of heart staying in the fight.”
In his last fight Montano scored an impressive fourth round knockout over Arturo Ramos.
Melligen who took the Prieto fight at 147 pounds just to get a chance to show promoter Bob Arum what kind of a fighter he was will now go back to fighting as a light welterweight when he battles Montano.
Melligen dropped Prieto in the third round with a left straight and continued to punish him, forcing Prieto to quit at the end of the 5th round.
Melligen said his opponent was big and a light middleweight who came in at 165 pounds and although Prieto “hit hard I could handle his power easily.” Melligen also noted that his opponent was “a little slow and I could see the punches coming.”
The win was a confidence booster for Melligen who lived up to predictions that he would overpower the heavily built 30 year old Prieto who dropped to 6-6-1 with no knockouts. Among those Prieto had fought were reigning WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto and undefeated Vanes Martirosyan. The 22 year old Melligen improved his to 13-1 with 10 knockouts.
