By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Michael Domingo, the quiet but underrated bantamweight who has been avoided by the bigger names in the division especially after his spectacular second round knockout of Colombia’s menacing-looking Luis Melendez last May, has gotten a long deserved break and will face off in an eliminator for the No.1 slot of the IBF.
ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told the Inquirer that Domingo (40-14-2, 18 KO’s), who had offered to step in for Eric Morel when Morel had to pull-out of a scheduled WBO/WBC title fight against Fernando Montiel due to injury but was turned down by the Montiel camp, will face Vusi “Marvelous” Malinga (19-3-1, 12 KO’s), a fighter of well-known South African promoter Branco Milenkovic.
However, no definite date has been set as yet for the IBF eliminator. A win by the 31 year old Domingo would place him as the mandatory challenger to current IBF champion Yonnhy Perez of Colombia.
The compact, skilled Domingo who stunned Oscar De La Hoya’s undefeated protégé Miguel Roman (22-0, 17 KO’s) in the Philippines-Mexico World Cup in August 11, 2007 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California is ranked No. 7 by the IBF while Malinga is No. 9.
Domingo has won his last 9 fights and his record of 14 losses is somewhat misleading because they were mainly before he joined the ALA Gym and his career was not being handled properly by his previous manager.
The 30 year old Malinga will be coming off a 3rd round TKO over Tanzania’s undefeated Fadhili Majia (7-0, 3 KO’s) to win the WBO African bantamweight title.
