By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Super featherweight Michael Farenas, a protégé of former world two division champion Gerry Penalosa, put on a disappointing performance and in the process dropped a unanimous eight round decision to Nicaragua’s 22 year old Marlon “Rocky” Aguilar in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on a Top Rank fight card telecast by ABS-CBN over Studio 23 on Sunday.
The 25 year old southpaw who has had some impressive wins in the US and Mexico but also notched up a few victories over certified Thai patsies in Manila lacked intensity and was too slow even as he failed to answer the pleas of an increasingly desperate trainer Eric Brown who in-between rounds told Farenas “keep going to the body. You be first, don’t wait on this guy.”
Farenas who kept catching Aguilar with low blows finally had a point taken away in round six and then again in round eight which was a low point in a poor performance.
Farenas who was cut early in the fight on the right eye didn’t have anything to worry about because he had ace Manny Pacquiao cutman Miguel Diaz in his corner but at the end of the sixth round Brown asked Farenas whether he was okay and he didn’t show any sign that the cut bothered him.
Going into the final round it was obvious that Farenas needed a knockout to win and Brown told him “ you got to put him down. You cannot stop punching.” But Farenas didn’t seem to have the energy or the inclination to even try to get it done.
Although the official scores were not announced it came as no surprise to us, as we did the telecast with Dyan Castillejo for ABS-CBN that Aguilar was declared winner by unanimous decision.
With the loss Farenas drops to 27-3-3, 24 knockouts while “Rocky” Aguilar improves to 24-9-1 with 17 knockouts and wins his third consecutive fight after losing by a 4th round TKO to former bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez in a battle for the vacant WBC International featherweight title.
