By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The Philippines No.1 featherweight Michael Farenas has scored a smashing 3rd round knockout over Thailand’s Sunan Thosen before a huge crowd that packed the Mandaluyong Gym on Saturday night.
With the win Farenas upped his record to 24-2-2 with 21 knockouts while Thosen whose stance clearly showed he was a Muay Thay veteran put on a better challenge than his countryman, Sorachet Tongmala, a certified patsy who lost to Farenas by a 1st round KO last October 11 after a mere tap on his mid-section that saw Tongmala drop to the canvas in pain.
At least Thosen tried to fight back against the vicious body shots unleashed by Farenas and on a few occasions caught the Filipino southpaw with a good right straight. But the Thai, also a southpaw, who had to wait for over two hours on Friday because of the late arrival of Farenas for the 9:00 a.m. weigh-in finally crumbled before the onslaught of Farenas.
Thosen was sent crashing to the canvas flat on his back by a vicious left hook and lay prostrate for a few minutes as doctors attended to him. With the loss Thosen dropped to 13-6 with 4 knockouts according to the record submitted by his Thai handlers.
WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa said he is looking for a solid opponent for Farenas in his next fight and mentioned Australia’s Bill Dib who lost a twelve round unanimous decision to Steven Luevano for the WBO title as one of the fighters he had in mind or Mexican Hector Velasquez who lost to Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao by a 6th round TKO on September 10, 2005.
Velasquez avenged that defeat when he faced Pacquiao’s younger brother Bobby Pacquiao who was disqualified in the 11th round in their WBC Continental Americas super featherweight title fight on November 16, 2006 .
Pacquiao came in overweight and was eventually disqualified for repeated low blows.
