By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Although the U.S debut of WBO Oriental flyweight champion Richie Mepranum of Maasim, Sarangani in Mindanao, was sidelined by the spectacular performance of Manny Pacquiao in his clinical destruction of Oscar De La Hoya in their hyped “Dream Match,” the province-mate of Pacquiao added to the joy of millions of Filipinos with his impressive six-round points decision over Cesar “El Gallito” Lopez in one of the fights on the undercard at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
There was some concern over Mepranum’s late arrival in Las Vegas and the possibility of jetlag hitting him on the d ay of the fight but he showed no ill-effects and pounded out a unanimous decision over the 25 year old Lopez from El Paso, Texas who had a record of 20-6 with 4 knockouts entering the ring.
While there was some confusion as to the correct fight record of the southpaw Mepranum with boxrec.com indicating a 14-2-1, 3 KO record and other reports claiming that Mepranum’s record is 18-1-1 with 7 knockouts in the end it made no real difference as Mepranum won on the scorecards of all three judges – 58-56, 59-55 and a shutout 60-54.
Mepranum’s only loss was against Thailand’s tough Denkaosan Kaovichit (39-1, 16 KO’s) on September 14, 2007 after which he won five fights in a row including the WBO Oriental title in which he beat Tanzania’s Juma Fundi on points on June 14, 2008 , Lopez has lost his last three fights.
He was beaten by Isidro Garxcia in a bout for thevacant IBA title on April 17, 2007, lost to Japan’s Koki Kameda by a lopsided ten round decision on July 28, 2007 and dropped an eight round unanimous decision to former WBC light flyweight champion Brian Viloria on February 16, 2008.
Lopez also lost by decision in a North American Boxing Association and vacant WBO North American Boxing Organization flyweight title bout to Glenn Donaire on May 5, 2006.
In his last fight on July 27 this year, Mepranum scored an eighth round unanimous decision over rugged Louie Bantigue.
