By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Three more Filipino boxers have been beaten in fights in Thailand and South Korea where boxing is slowly but surely regaining its popularity.
The Philippines’ Vinvin Rufino was a loser in a WBC Asian Boxing Council featherweight title bout suffering a TKO at 1:31 of the fifth round against undefeated Thai Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo in Ayutthaya Province. With the win Piriyapinyo improved his record to 21-0 with 11 knockouts while the southpaw Rufino dropped to 13-7 with 5 KO’s.
Over at the Douggu Cultural Center in Daeju, Filipino Rodel Tejares lost by a sixth round knockout to South Korea’s Jung Oh Sun who won the Korean super flyweight title beatingt Jung Wan Kim last June 6. With the win Sun moves to 12-4-1 with 3 KO’s while Tejares drops to 3-2-1 with 1 KO.
In another bout on the same card former Philippine super flyweight champion, southpaw Eric Barcelona lost a fifth round technical decision to Sung Kook Kim who had won the Korean bantamweight crown with a fifth round knockout of Jung Hoon Kang last April 21. Two of the judges had the Korean ahead 48-47 and 50-45 while one judge had it even at 47-47.
Barcelona won the Philippine Boxing Federation bantamweight title scoring a ten round unanimous decision over Federico Catubay last February 16. Catubay is set to battle former IBF/IBO flyweight champion Vic “The Raging Bull” Darchinyan for the vacant IBO super flyweight title in Australia on October 20. The cocky Australian moved up after he suffered a stunning fifth round KO at the hands of “The Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire and lost his IBF and IBO flyweight titles earlier this year.
