By Ronnie Nathanielsz

The Philippines Ramie Laput, ranked No. 7 junior featherweight by the World Boxing Organization and the reigning  WBO Intercontinental champion has won, as expected, over the bigger and game Rene Bucag in a fight card in Zamboanga City.

Behind an effective jab Laput launched a vicious body attack to wear down Bucag who turned out to be tougher than most people thought he would be, before the world rated fighter from the American Boxing Academy scored a 7th round knockout.

Laput dropped Bucag who had been fighting in Australia twice in the seventh round ending the contest with what ABA ’s Ken Smith said was a “thundering body shot.” The win improved Laput’s record to 37-3 with 20 knockouts.

Laput’s ABA stable-mate Fernando Lumacad scored a sixth round technical decision over Arnold Montijo after Lumacad sustained a nasty cut caused by  an accidental head-butt..

All three judges had Lumacad who controlled the action ahead on their scorecards at the time of the stoppage.  The top-ranked Filipino flyweight upped his record to 19 wins with 1 loss and 2 draws with 7 knockouts.

Two other promising young fighters from Ken Smith’s ABA scored easy second round knockout victories with Ricardo Claveria stopped BroBro Lanquido while Bert Udtuhan stopped Kent Marmol.

The only setback for the American Boxing Academy fighters was the loss of Cerilo Espinos in an eight round clash with Rolando Teofilo who controlled the action against Espinos who didn’t seem to be able  get into his rhythm.