By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former WBC world flyweight champion Malcolm Tunacao has decided to give up his WBC International super flyweight title rather than fight former two division world champion Masibulele “Hawk” Makepula in South Africa on February 25 after Makepula’s manager and promoter Branco Malenkovic won a purse bid by default as Tunacao’s camp failed to beat the January 9 purse bid deadline.
Manila Standard learned that Tunacao pointed to the split decision loss of Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation super featherweight champion Randy Suico who lost a title eliminator to Mzonke Fana last May and said it was almost impossible to win a decision in South Africa. However, Viva Sports which telecast the Suico-Fana fight scored it in favor of Fana whose stinging left jab piled up the points in most of the rounds.
According to Tunacao he would “prefer to go ahead” with a scheduled February 14 bout at the famed Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo against Takashi Himeno who has a record of 11-2-2 with 3 knockouts and work himself back into contention in the world rankings.
Tunacao won the WBC International title with a fifth round KO of Indonesia’s Ringo Jaguar on September 26, 2003 and was on the verge of being stripped of his title for failure to defend it. However, Mauro Betti of the WBC ratings committee gave Tunacao’s handlers a chance to enter a purse bid after they failed to negotiate with the handlers og Makepula who is the mandatory challenger.
Tunacao was rated No. 9 super flyweight by the IBF in its latest rankings and No. 10 by the WBC where he was listed as International champion and a contender.
