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BANAL IN PAINFUL WORLD TITLE LOSS By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sun, 21 Oct 2012  For the second time in his career AJ ?Bazooka? Banal suffered a painful loss in his attempt to win a world title when tough Thai contender Pungluang Sor Singyu scored a 9th round TKO to capture the vacant WBO bantamweight title before a stunned crowd at the plush Mall of Asia Arena by the bay along Roxas Boulevard. In his first attempt to win the WBC super flyweight interim title, Banal suddenly and inexplicably faded while leading comfortably on the scorecards of all three judges in the tenth round and was knocked out by Rafael ?El Torito? Concepcion of Panama in July 26, 2008 before 15,000 shocked hometown fans at the Cebu Coliseum.. At the time of the stoppage this time around, Pungluang was ahead on the scorecards of two of the three judges with Raul Caiz Jr and Levi Martinez having the Thai up 76-75 while the third judge, Robert Hoyle, favored Banal 77-74. Although Banal had the bigger volume of punches and on occasions appeared to have Pungluang in trouble, the Thai fighter who is the reigning WBO Oriental champion connected with the crisper, more accurate and heavier shots even as he came forward relentlessly. Just as WBO president Francisco ?Paco? Valcarcel had warned, Pungluang was tough and continuously moved forward and forced Banal into a series of hard exchanges. Banal?s fight plan was thrown off by a nasty cut above his right eyebrow caused by an accidental clash of heads in the third round and despite the frantic efforts of Dr. Ed de la Vega who acted as cut-man, they couldn?t stop the bleeding as Pungluang targeted the cut and the flow of blood hampered Banal?s vision as the cut opened up even wider. Banal started off well but two low blows in the opening round and one more in the second drew a warning from referee Tony Weeks who had no hesitation in deducting a point from the Filipino for another low blow in the sixth round. When Banal, who was trying to weaken Pungluang with body shots, caught the Thai with one more low blow in the eighth round, referee Weeks warned ?You are going to be disqualified.? Banal continued to engage Pungluang who tagged him often with his hard right straight and also demonstrated his resiliency in taking some of the best shots of Banal. The Filipino southpaw nailed Pungluang with some excellent combinations in rounds five and six and slowly began to turn the tide in his favor. He hurt the Thai with a solid uppercut in round eight and then nailed him again with another ripping combination early in round nine but Pungluang who trained at a Navy camp in Thailand to develop his strength and endurance, absorbed the punishment and moved forward aggressively before he caught Banal with a left to the body followed by a hard right hook which sent Banal down and almost through the ropes. Although Banal beat the count his legs were wobbly and as he turned his back Weeks wisely called a halt at 1:45 of the ninth round. Banal was in tears when Weeks stopped the fight and despite comforting words from WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire who was on the ABS-CBN television panel covering the fight and ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer in his dressing room, Banal couldn?t overcome the heartache of twice losing a world title bid. There was quiet jubilation in the dressing room of the newly crowned Thai world champion and his promoter and president of OneSongchai Promotions, Pariyakorn Ratanasuban told the Manila Standard ?I wish to thank all the Filipinos. I am very happy to be here and I want to come here again.? Pungluang who had a welt under his right eye said he was ?hurt a little bit during the fight but not that much. I learned how to recover. This was my big chance and I grabbed it.? The champion said he hurt Banal with a left and then followed up with a right in the 9th round and knew Banal wouldn't be able to survive. He thanked ALA Promotions and ABS-CBN ?for giving us a chance to broadcast the fight to Thailand? where reportedly the revered King was watching the action. Pungluang who also got in some low blows in the eighth round said he was ?hurt a lot? by the low blows of Banal but shrugged them off. The win extended Pungluang's record to 17 wins over Filipinos even as his team paid tribute to Filipino sparring partner Jerwin Ancajas who helped prepare him for the title fight. In the best fight of the night Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista battled for twelve furious rounds before he eked out a split decision over hard-hitting Mexican Daniel Ruiz. Bautista said he caught Ruiz with his biggest shots but the Mexican who was three pounds over the limit and appeared to have widened the weight advantage in the fight, took his shots and came back with some big blows of his own. In the end the superb condition of Bautista and his fighting heart made the difference. Promising junior welterweight Jason Pagara scored a smashing first round knockout over highly-touted, undefeated Miguel Hands of Stone? Antoine of Barbados whose fighting style according to Donaire reminded him of Andre Berto. However, a crunching left hand to the body by Pagara early in the fight shattered the hands of stone who was counted out at 2:48 of the opening round to the delight of Donaire who predicted a big future for the 20 year old star of the ALA Gym. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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