By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Romeo “Jako” Jakosalem fights South African lightweight champion Patrick “Hammer” Malinga (22-6, 19KOs) at the NASREC Indoor Arena in Johannesburg on Friday in what looks like a dangerous bout for the 20 year old Filipino.
Jakosalem who has a record of 9-2 with 4 knockouts according to boxrec.com has won his last three fights in a row after losing an eighth round decision to previously undefeated Australian William Kickett, who at that time had a record of 8-0 with 4 knockouts, but he is going up against Malinga, nicknamed “The Hammer” because of his punching power.
Malinga won the South African title with a 12th round knockout over Amon Baloyi who collapsed at the final round was about to begin on August 9, 2008.
The Malinga-Baloyi fight was described as a mismatch and there was only one fighter in fifteen victories since 1998 who survived the distance. In his last fight Malinga scored a six round majority decision over Benedict Dlamani after earlier winning six bouts in a row all by knockout or TKO.
Michael Aldeguer of the ALA Gym said Jakosalem used to train at the Gym but left some months ago claiming he wanted to go back to his hometown of Davao City and they hadn’t heard from him since then.
Since his loss to Kickett in February last year, Jakosalem won three fights in a row. He began with a 5th round TKO over Elmer Colve on May 31, 2008, then scored an eight round unanimous decision over William Jorge on October 30 and ended the year with a ten round unanimous decision over Glen Masicampo.
A report by Wellington Amadulu on Saddo Boxing said that in winning the national lightweight title Malinga threw “a frightening amount of heavy-handed punishment” and by the time Baloyi answered the bell for the final round there was nothing left and he collapsed on the canvas before a punch had been thrown.
