SARANGANI’s pride Richie Mepranum is making a good living in the United States by eking out impressive wins.
Mepranum demolished previously unbeaten Mexican flyweight Hernan ‘Tyson’ Marquez over ten rounds on Saturday (Philippine time) to notch his third straight wins in as many fights in the US.
Fightnews.com scribe Jeff Zimmerman described the win as an upset as Marquez has knocked out 18 of his previous 25 opponents until he ran into the slick and sweet counterpunching Mepranum.
The 22-year old Mepranum, a southpaw from Maasim town in Sarangani, won 99-91, 98-92 and 96-94 in all three scorecards.
Marquez was the aggressor throughout the fight but Mepranum repeatedly scored the more telling blows, according to Zimmerman.
The Mexican suffered his first defeat in his debut fight in the US.
Richie, meanwhile, improved his official ring record to 17 wins, two defeats and a draw.
His manager, Maasim Mayor Jojo Lopez, however said Mepranum has only one loss – a controversial hometown decision against Denkaosan Kaovichit in Ratchaburi, Thailand in 2007.
Mepranum said he clearly won the fight but was robbed of the victory.
His other alleged loss was to Panomroonglek Kratingdaenggym but Lopez said that fight never happened.
Lopez said Mepranum’s name was used for another Filipino fighter who was knocked out in six rounds.
Mepranum was held to a controversial draw by Efren Huesca in the undercard of the Pacquiao-Larios fight held at the Araneta Coliseum.
He previously held the World Boxing organization Oriental flyweight boxing crown by scoring a unanimous decision win against Tanzanian Juma Dundi.
Mepranum signed a multi-year multi-fight contract with To Rank after his smashing debut in the US where he won over American Cesar Lopez in the preliminaries of the Oscar de la Hoya-Manny Pacquiao welterweight fight.
