MORE SETBACKS FOR FILIPINO BOXERS

Three more Filipino boxers have been beaten in fights in Thailand and South Korea where boxing is slowly but surely regaining its popularity.

The Philippines’ Vinvin Rufino was a loser in a WBC Asian Boxing Council featherweight title bout suffering a TKO at 1:31 of the fifth round against undefeated Thai Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo in Ayutthaya Province. With the win Piriyapinyo improved his record to 21-0 with 11 knockouts while the southpaw Rufino dropped to 13-7 with 5 KO’s.

Over at the Douggu Cultural Center in Daeju, Filipino Rodel Tejares lost by a sixth round knockout to South Korea’s Jung Oh Sun who won the Korean super flyweight title beatingt Jung Wan Kim last June 6. With the win Sun moves to 12-4-1 with 3 KO’s while Tejares drops to 3-2-1 with 1 KO.

In another bout on the same card former Philippine super flyweight champion, southpaw Eric Barcelona lost a fifth round technical decision to Sung Kook Kim who had won the Korean bantamweight crown with a fifth round knockout of Jung Hoon Kang last April 21. Two of the judges had the Korean ahead 48-47 and 50-45 while one judge had it even at 47-47.

Barcelona won the Philippine Boxing Federation bantamweight title scoring a ten round unanimous decision over Federico Catubay last February 16. Catubay is set to battle former IBF/IBO flyweight champion Vic “The Raging Bull” Darchinyan for the vacant IBO super flyweight title in Australia on October 20. The cocky Australian moved up after he suffered a stunning fifth round KO at the hands of “The Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire and lost his IBF and IBO flyweight titles earlier this year.