By Rey Danseco
Zhi Lin Xia of China won a unanimous decision over Carlito Brosas of the Philippines to capture the vacant World Boxing Empire (WBE) Asia Pacific welterweight title in the main event of Gabriel Elorde Jr’s “Eastern Brawl” card Saturday in Mandaluyong City.
The 6-foot Chinese from Wuhan City dominated the very tentative Filipino, mostly with left-right straight punch combinations despite breathing from his mouth from the fourth round on, due to exhaustion before a jam packed Mandaluyong Sports Complex.
Xia threw more punches and his aggression prevented the 5-foot-10 Brosas from coming in.
At several points, Brosas landed with a right hand and seemed to stagger Xia, his corner man, former two-time world flyweight champ Erbito Salavarria shook his head in irritation when the local boy stepped backwards to time his follow ups instead of continuously pressing the action.
Filipino judges assigned by Commissioner-Advisor Dante Almario once again proved that they are the most impartial officials in the world as they scored the fight 118-110, 116-111 and 115-111 for Xia.
Despite looking more fresh than the swinging Chinese fighter, Brosas couldn’t hide his frustration when he got warnings from Philippine referee Bruce McTavish for hitting low. He carelessly punched below the belt in the 7th and 11th round to cost him one point each.
Brosas weighed 146-pound and his record is now 14-10-1 with 8 knockouts. Xia, weighing 147, improved to 8-2 with 3 knockouts.
On the undercard, unranked late substitute Jun de Asis (6-4, 3 KOs), 113-lb, scored a knockdown with two right hooks in the second round and finally stopped IBF No. 11 minimumweight contender Ernesto “Hard Rock” Rubillar (35-28-7, 13 KOs), 108-lb, at 2:39 of round six of scheduled 10-rounder.
Rubillar quit in the fight after suffering a sprained left elbow with De Asis’ left straight.
Salavarria’s protégé Drian Francisco (4-0, 2 KOs) remained undefeated after earning a shutout unanimous decision win in a six round flyweight fight against Rommel Ople, who uses a ringname Manny Pacquoan (1-4, 1 KO).
Bantam Rene Bestudio, who suffered cuts on both sides of his eyes from unintentional headbutts in round 2 and 4, improved to 3-0 with 1 KO with unanimous decision win over four rounds against Michael Romulo (1-3-2, 1 KO).
Raymond Sermona (1-0-1, 1 KO), a hard-hitting 5-foot-4 superbantam, picked himself up from the canvas in the opening round to secure a majority draw decision in four rounds against debutant Janjan Recacio (0-0-1).
Junior feather Romeo Lucenara knocked out Ian dela Peña in the second round of their first professional fight.
