By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Fighters from the Braveheart boxing gym of North Cotabato vice governor Manny Pinol stole the show from WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa who headlined the “Battle of the Bantamweights” before a big crowd at the Cebu Coliseum Saturday night.
The telecast over Studio 23 of the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN which was also beamed around the world by the global network of TFC, the popular Filipino channel, began with bantamweight Glenn “The Rock” Porras pulverizing a Thai fighter identified as Daothon Sissuey who was announced as having a record of 10-5 with 2 knockouts although boxrec.com had no record of his fights.
A solid left hook by Porras dropped the taller Thai early in the opening round and after a series of vicious body shots Porras nailed him with a left to the jaw to register a TKO at 2:26 of the very first round without a sweat.
Sissuey was badly hurt and had to be attended to by the ringside doctors and given oxygen before he recovered after a couple of minutes. With the win Porras improved to 21-3 with 15 knockouts.
The next fight featured a six round swing bout between two more southpaws in Rommel “The Little Assasin” Asenjo and lanky Marlon Villanueva. In an action-packed bout Asenjo and Villanueva traded big shots but Villanueva who had a record of 5-3-1 with 4 knockouts turned his back and called in quits after taking a flurry of punches from Asenjo capped by a left hook . The time of the TKO was 2:23 of the third round with the 19 year old Braveheart fighter improving to 12-2 with 10 knockouts.
Another Pinol protégé, undefeated Jundy “Pretty Boy” Maraon who entered the ring with a record 12-0-1 with 9 knockouts won the WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight championship with an impressive third round TKO over tough Jason Egera (11-2, 5 KO’s) the defending champion.
Egera suffered a cut below the right eyebrow in the opening round where Maraon also hurt the champion with a hard left. There were some torrid exchanges in round two with both boxers throwing solid left hooks before Egera rocked Maraon late in the round.
In round three Maraon faked with a right straight and caught Egera with a perfectly-timed thunderous left hook that sent the champion crashing to the canvas flat on his face.
Doctors rushed to the aid of the stricken fighter, gave him oxygen and attached a neck brace since he appeared to hit the canvas head first. The ring physicians attended to the fallen champion for several minutes with a look of concern on their faces before he was carried out of the ring on a stretcher. The time was 1:36 of the third round.
Rolando “Smooth Operator” Magbanua won the WBO Oriental bantamweight interim championship with a superb display of controlled, relentless aggression against Mexico’s Jose Angel “Bocho” Cota whose record on boxrec.com was reported as 8 wins with 3 defeats but was announced as having a record of 19 wins with only 3 defeats.
Whatever Cota’s real record was he did have the brave, warrior-like instincts of Mexican fighters and battled gallantly against an infinitely superior fighter in the 23 year old Magbanua.
Magbanua pressed the action from the opening bell as Cota danced out of trouble. A couple of excellent left hooks rocked the head of Cota back in a stirring exchange in round two.
Cota appeared to wobble Magbanua with a good right in round three before referee Tony Pesons was forced to halt the action to have ringside physicians examine a cut suffered by Cota halfway through the round.
Magbabua once again snapped the head of Cota back with a vicious left hook and maintained his relentless attack in round five where the grueling 37 hour flight of Cota who had to take the long route to Cebu because he lacked a US visa appeared to start taking its toll.
A cracking left uppercut by Magbanua had Cota in deep trouble but unfortunately the Filipino slipped on a slick portion in his corner and was temporarily frustrated. But no sooner had he picked himself up Magbanua went after the hapless Cota with a barrage of punches forcing his corner to throw in the towel. The time was 1:08 of the sixth round.
The main event was a disappointing affair as Mexico’s 22 year old German Meraz (20-11, 8 KO’s) kept running for most of the ten rounds and simply refused to engage the 36 year old Penalosa in a fight where restless fans occasionally booed the lack of action especially after the slam-bang bouts on the undercard.
Penalosa’s timing was a little off in the opening round but in the second he sent Meraz through the ropes with a perfect left straight and a hard right to the body followed by a cracking counter right hook. Meraz was cautioned for holding even as Penalosa connected with a good left straight at the bell to end round three.
Meraz continued to dance around while pawing with his left even as he tried to confuse Penalosa by occasionally switching to a southpaw stance but that never helped. His corner in desperation in round five shouted “catch him with the jab. Do something.” A low blow by Penalosa resulted in a lull in the action after which Penalosa was cut by what appeared to be a clash of heads. This fired up Penalosa who turned on the heat but couldn’t really catch or hurt Meraz.
Respected international referee Bruce McTavish, obviously irritated with the tactics of Meraz stopped the action in round six and warned Meraz to fight which appeared to draw a response from Penalosa who chased Meraz and caught him with a couple of thudding body shots.
The pattern of Meraz running around to avoid Penalosa’s punches and the 36 year old veteran’s failure to cut off the ring and catch him resulted in the TV panel of Bill Velasco, Dyan Castillejo and co-promoter Pinol saying “the crowd is really getting impatient” while in round 8 Pinol himself pointed out, quite correctly, “this will not be remembered for Gerry Penalosa – Meraz.”
Some fans began to leave the coliseum at the start of round nine, the penultimate round even as Meraz’ corner kept yelling at him “let it go” the Mexican clipped Penalosa with his best shot of the fight, a good right straight after which he began to taunt the champion. There was a smattering of boos as the fight wound down to its inevitable unanimous decision for Penalosa.
Judges Salven Lagumbay and Edward Ligas scored a shutout for Penalosa 100-89 while judge Edgar Olalo scored it 99-90.
While Penalosa got what amounted to a workout, he didn’t look impressive against Meraz who was described by boxing writer Jason Aniel of San Francisco, California as “a club fighter out of Mexico.”
