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Philippines, 11 Feb 2026 |
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Disturbing, Eyebrow-Raising Happenings Involving Prominent Filipino Fighters (Part 2) By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Thu, 24 Apr 2025  LLover (R) with his promoter Gerry Peñalosa. Yesterday, I discussed the disturbing continued employment of former world-class Filipino fighter Aston Palicte by contractors of foreign boxing promoters as a boxing trial horse, which I find excessively exploitative to the point of posing risks to his well-being and even life. I hope the GAB and/or other well-meaning individuals act to finally protect Palicte and other Filipino fighters, especially abroad, from this exploitative activity (which I suspect involves unscrupulous Filipino handlers) and protect Palicte and others from themselves, given that takes from fights overseas are much, much more than what they can earn fighting locally, and hence offers are hard to resist. Enough is enough. Eyebrow-Raising Happenings Involving Prominent Filipino Fighters This time, let us look into developments involving prominent Filipino fighters which, on the surface, may appear as good news or beneficial to the subject Filipino fighters, but which I find eyebrow-raising. A little while back, it was reported by fellow philboxing.com contributor Nick Giongco that Japanese promoters are scrambling for current Filipino bantamweight knockout sensation Kenneth Llover. Llover's promoter Gerry Peñalosa himself confirmed this and said at least five Japanese boxing promotions, including Ohashi and Treasure Boxing of former world champions Hideyuki Ohashi and Masayuki Ito, have sent offers for a co-promotion deal. To Gerry's credit, he has remained non-committal. As a former challenger before becoming a two-division world champion himself, he knows the importance of seasoning and proper preparation. Peñalosa wants at least two more fights to test the maturity and readiness of Llover to take on the Japanese fighters holding all major belts in the division. Personally, I suspect there is more than meets the eye in the surge of interest in Llover by Japanese promoters. Llover's successive knockout wins in Japan could have indeed made him in demand among Japanese fans. His victims, Tulio Dekanarudo and Keita Kurihara, were defending interim and regular OPBF bantamweight titlists and can be classified as second-echelon fighters in the division in Japan. That's nothing to scoff at, given the manner in which he disposed of them and the fact that the first-echelon Japanese fighters are mostly current and former world titlists or top-rated world contenders. But I am tempted to ask, is Llover potentially latching up with Japanese promoters a way to get him near a world title crack? Or keep him away from one? I remember how Johnriel Casimero virtually withered away on the vine whilst with Treasure. I hope Gerry will continue to play his cards right on this matter. Another news item that would seem okay at first glance was the report that Japan is keen on staging Christian Araneta's fight against Thai Thanongsak Simsri for the vacant IBF light flyweight title. It would appear as a return of favor for Araneta's stepping aside first to give way to Masamichi Yabuki's challenge of Sive Notshinga for the IBF title when he was the rightful mandatory challenger. Second, when he gave way to allow Yabuki to challenge for the IBF flyweight title versus newly crowned champion Angel Ayala. Yabuki succeeded in both tries and had decided to vacate the lower light flyweight crown, with the IBF ordering Araneta and Simsri to fight to fill the vacancy. With no agreement yet reached by the camps of Araneta and Simsri, the news of a Japanese boxing promotion volunteering to stage the fight in Japan indeed seems like a welcome development. Until we consider the fact that Araneta has not fought in Japan, and Simsri is under co-promotion by a Japanese promoter and has been based and fought in Japan for some time now, making him virtually a local boy. Go figure. Yet another news report recently that appears to favor our Filipino fighter is the offer of a Japanese promoter for Dave Apolinario to be featured in a fight in Japan, but against a non-Japanese opponent. Apolinario last figured in a major bout when he fought Angel Ayala in Mexico for the then-vacant IBF flyweight belt, which he lost by a 6th-round technical knockout. A review of that bout would reveal that Apolinario was actually winning as he exposed the weaknesses of Ayala: his slow start and difficulty against southpaws. That was until Dave was hit by a low blow, from which he was not given enough time to recover. Ayala exploited Apolinario's condition and his weakness to body punches, including punches to the liver area, to force the stoppage. Yabuki learned much from that bout, which he used in defeating Ayala via a last-round stoppage recently in Japan. Apolinario remained a formidable foe despite the loss to Ayala and potentially could be a future threat to Yabuki. Could it be they want to see him fight up close to better scout him? Editor's Note: Dave Apolinario lost his fight in Japan against the underdog Longyi Hu of China by 3rd round knockout last Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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