By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Promising  Michael “Hot and Spicy” Dasmarinas bucked a cut over his right eye in the 6 th round due to an accidental head-butt to dethrone previously undefeated Jhaleel “The Cebuano Disaster”  Payao in a battle of southpaws at the Mandaluyong City Gym over the weekend.

Dasmarinas who is ranked No. 2 by the Philippine Games and Amusements Board dropped a controversial  split decision in an IBO title fight against  South Africa’s Lwandile Sithyatha in South Africa  last December 13, 2014 in which one judge, Benoit Roussel who was one of the judges when WBO lifght flyweight champion Donnie “Ahas” Nietes retained his title with a unanimous decision victory over mandatory challenger Francisco Rodriguez, had the Filipino winning handily over Sithyatha  118-110 but was overturned by the two other judges who favored the South African 116-112.

In winning the WBC Youth crown over previously unbeaten Payao, Dasmarinas  improved his record  to 21-2 with 13 knockouts while Payao suffered his first setback to drop to  11-1 with 6 knockouts.

Under the WBC open scoring system the 22 year old Dasmarinas led on the scorecards of all three judges at the end of the 4 th round 40-36 while at the end of the 8 th, two judges had Dasmarinas ahead 77-74 while the third judge also had him ahead 78-73.

At the end of the ten rounds judges Carlo Baluyut and Virgilio Garcia turned in identical 96-93 scorecards in favor of Dasmarinas while judge Fernando Batistil also had Dasmarinas the winner by a wider  97-92 margin.

The  21 year old Payao had won the title with a ten round unanimous decision over  Rene Dacquel last December 9, 2014 while  Dasmarinas was coming off a 4 th round TKO over Roy Labrada last April 24.