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Philippines, 22 Feb 2026 |
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RUBILLAR, ABANIEL, IN IMPRESSIVE TITLE WINS By Salvador Lopez PhilBoxing.com Sun, 18 Nov 2007 The Philippines? Juanito Rubillar and Gretchen ?Chen Chen? Abaniel came up with impressive performances in defeating their respective foreign opponents in last Friday?s ?Tapatan sa Maynila? (?Match-Up in Manila?) held at the San Andres Sports Complex, San Andres, Manila. Defending his Orient Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) junior flyweight title for the third time against Korean challenger Beung Ju Lee, Rubillar had a quiet start as both fighters were measuring each other in the first round. Rubillar did manage to connect a few punches but hardly hurting his young Korean opponent. In the second round, a left Rubillar straight to the chin dropped Beung for the first time. Rubillar increased the pressure in the third round mixing his right uppercuts with left straights to score several combinations to the head and body that had the Korean reeling. The Korean had a temporary success in the fourth round, at least, from the defensive standpoint, as he was bending really low to avoid Rubillar?s punches. By the fifth round, Rubillar sensed that it was time to go for the kill and continued to pressure the Korean. Rubillar scored another series of combinations that had the Korean tasting the canvas for the second time. A left straight decked the Korean for the third time and even though Referee Ken Bayless allowed him to continue after that, Bueng?s corner literally threw in the towel as a sign of surrender. The official time of the stoppage was 1:22 of Round 5. In the co-main event of the evening, Gretchen ?Chen Chen? Abaniel boxed beautifully en route to winning a unanimous decision against Lilly Srachaprachagym, and in the process, winning the vacant WBC International Lady Minimumweight Championship.   Abaniel in action (upper photo), Abaniel with manager Terry Mogg before the fight (lower photo)  US referee/judge Rocky Burke with local judge Ricardo Canlas Photos by Saldy Lopez. Using excellent footwork, Abaniel would often score dizzying combinations in a flash peppering the face of her competitive Thai opponent. There were several times in the fight where the Thai was ready to go down but proved too tough to hang on till the final bell. The judges scorecards are: Rocky Burke (USA): 99-90, Ruben Carreon (USA): 99-89, and Raul Nieves (Puerto Rico): 98-91. Gene del Bianco refereed this fight. In another fight, WBO Asia Pacific Flyweight Champion Drian Francisco was dominating Nino Suelo until a clash of heads in the 4th round opened an ugly cut in Francisco?s forehead prompting the ringside physician to advise the stoppage of the fight. The early stoppage was a minor disappointment to the crowd in attendance who were seeing a display of technical boxing with Francisco scoring stiff jabs and punishing right hooks to the body of Suelo while using nice spin movements to evade the latter?s punches. The bantamweight fight between Raymond Sermona and Edwin Dignos proved to be the best fight of the evening as both boxers were trading punches non-stop right from the beginning to the end. Sermona was decked by a Dignos right straight in the first round but established superiority in the succeeding rounds, even had Dignos on the verge of a knockdown on several occasions, and earned a unanimous decision with all three judges tallying an identical score of 58-55. It was in some way a revenge for Sermona whose brother Ronilo was beaten by Dignos late last year. In another fight held at the 110-pound limit, seven time Philippine amateur champion Warlito Parrenas was tentative in his 8-round bout against veteran Philip Parcon which proved costly as he suffered his second professional loss. The fight was evenly contested with Parcon landing more but probably ineffective punches while Parrenas was landing the harder ones, albeit, few of them. Parrenas pressured Parcon in the last round and scored some telling punches to the head and body of Parcon which proved to be a way too late as Parcon earned a majority decision victory in the judges? scorecards (77-77, 78-74, and 77-75). In another flyweight fight featuring two Elorde fighters, Edison Berwela displayed a lot of roughhousing tactics against Ronquillo Salvador and was lucky to earn a split decision victory by the scores of 57-55, 56-54, and 53-58. Rounding off the results of the other bouts: Anthony Marcial defeating Jose Ocampo in their 132-lb bout via a technical decision (30-27, 30-27, and 29-28); Archiel Villamor defeatingJun Magsipoc in their superflyweight bout via a majority decision (39-37, 39-37, and 38-38); and Mauricio Caravalle winning over Robel Villegas via a second round KO. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salvador Lopez.  |
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