Villacura-Vocale a Draw, Mangan Decisions Yamo
FILIPINO BOXERS INVADE PAPUA NEW GUINEA/Ronnie Nathanielsz
Three Filipino boxers fighting out of Australia invaded Papua New Guinea over the weekend and faced mixed fortunes in a fight card staged at the Hideaway Resort and Hotel in the capital of Port Moresby.
Flash Villacura was cut twice over the right eye while his opponent Francis Oaike suffered a cut on his right cheek as a result of accidental collision of heads forcing referee Brad Vocale to call a halt at 2:17 of the fourth round and to go to the scorecards of the three judges.
Bona Ae had Oaike leading 29-28, Robert Wamana saw it even at 29-29 while Francis Deukari had Villacura ahead 29-28 resulting in a technical draw.
As a result the southpaw Oaike who beat Filipino Jomanz in a six round split decision last February 21 moved to 2-0-1 with 1 knockout while the far more experienced Villacura dropped to 22-23-2 with 11 knockouts.
Roel Mangan, a light welterweight scored a six round majority decision over Rickson Yamo. Judges Martin Beni and Mech Robin had the Filipino winning by identical 59-55 scorecards while the third judge Lucas Lelang scored it even at 57-57.
With the win Mangan improved to 13-13-1 with 3 knockouts while Yamo dropped to 3-1-1 with 0 knockouts.
In third fight featuring a Filipino, Junmar Dulog lost by a 5th round TKO to 31 year old John Deklam when Dulog’s trainer asked referee Brad Vocale to stop the bout after the Filipino was given a standing eight-count at 2:59 of the fifth round.
Dulog who has lost eight and drawn one of his last nine fights dropped to a record of 5-18-2 with 2 knockouts while Deklam remained undefeated in three fights with one stoppage.
Interestingly, Dulog who is a lightweight and fought his last bout at 134 pounds against Jackson Asiku in May moved up to fight Deklam ( 146 ¾ pounds) as a welterweight and weighed in at 144 pounds.