By Danrex Tapdasan

Highly-ranked super flyweights from all over the world will gain their long-awaited opportunity to fight either for the vacant or interim WBO 115-pounds title. Recently, Jhonny Gonzalez of BoxingScene.com reported that Argentinean promoter Osvaldo Rivero, representative of undefeated Omar Andres Narvaez (35-0-2, 19 KOs), said a deal for the Argentinean boxer to fight World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight champion Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire of San Leandro, California by way of General Santos  City, Philippines is close to being signed.

Narvaez is the current champion in the super flyweight division of the WBO. If and when he moves up in weight to challenge Donaire (26-1-0, 18 KOs), El Huracán will attempt to be a 3-division world champion. Narvaez was a former WBO flyweight champion.

While Narvaez campaigns against Donaire, the WBO may possibly call for an interim title fight between two of the highest ranked available contenders. If Narvaez is able to pull off an upset, then he would likely remain at 118-pounds and vacate his belt at 115. If Narvaez loses, he would likely drop back to 115 to face the interim champion.

The following are the top 15 contenders in the latest (August 2011) rankings of the WBO in the super flyweight class:

1   Isack Junior    INDONESIA
2   Jose Cabrera    MEXICO
3   Roberto Domingo Sosa    ARGENTINA
4   John Mark Apolinario    PHILIPPINES
5   Cesar Seda, Jr. PUERTO RICO
6   Daniel Rosa     MEXICO
7   Juan Mercedes   DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
8   Johnny Garcia   MEXICO
9   Alfred Tetteh   GHANA
10  Kwannpichit 13 Rien Express     THAILAND
11  Juan Carlos Sanchez MEXICO
12  Kenji Oba   JAPAN
13  Drian Francisco PHILIPPINES
14  Jerwin Ancajas  PHILIPPINES
15  Takuya Kogawa   JAPAN

No. 1 contender Isack Junior (17-1-2, 8 KOs) of Indonesia is the current WBO Asia-Pacific champion, winning the vacant regional diadem in his latest fight on March 27 against Filipino Joel Rafols. Mexican Jose “Matador” Cabrera (20-2-1, 8 KOs), who is ranked 2nd, last fought on June 18 against Omar Lina.

Based on the present circumstances, the above-mentioned top 2 contenders in the WBO 115 lbs. division will be available to fight each other either for the vacant title, as may be determined by the WBO leadership. However, in the event that one or both of them
expresses his unavailability for whatever reason, the WBO will go down the line of contenders to fill the expected void.

The writer is a lawyer by profession, a Professional Boxing Referee and Judge from the Philippines accredited by the Association of Boxing Commissions [ABC], as well as a part of the pool of officials licensed by the World Boxing Organization [WBO] and International Boxing Federation [IBF]. He can be emailed at dvtapdasan.assoc@gmail.com