Philippines, 09 May 2024
  Home >> News

 


BOXERS

CURRENT CHAMPIONS 

FORMER CHAMPIONS   

RATINGS                       

NEWS           

FORUM        

FIGHT GALLERIES        

RING CARD GIRLS        


 
 
News  


Bantamweight and Featherweight, New Pinoy Niche Weight Classes?


PhilBoxing.com



Casimero (L) and Tapales lead Pinoys at top of bantam and feather weights.

The bantamweight is a class in boxing for boxers who weigh above 115 pounds and up to 118 pounds . The weight class takes its name from bantam, a particularly feisty kind of chicken originally from the town of Bantam in the Indonesian island of Java.

The featherweight on the other hand used to be the intermediate weight class between the bantamweight and lightweight for boxers weighing above 122 pounds and up to 126 pounds. That was before the introduction of the junior, latter denoted as super divisions as the junior featherweight or super bantamweight and junior lightweight or super featherweight, divisions.

Apart from Nonito Donaire, Jr. who reigned for a second time as world bantamweight titlist until losing to Naoya Inoue in the World Boxing Super Series recently in Saitama, Japan, three other Filipinos are still currently in the thick of the fight for supremacy in the 118 lbs weight class.

There's former world light flyweight and flyweight titleholder Johnriel Casimero on whose shoulders rest the fate of the Philippines world title campaign this November after the Donaire loss and the Jerwin Ancajas fight cancellation as he takes on WBO regular world belt holder Zolani Tete of South Africa in Manchester, UK this November 30. Casimero is current WBO interim world champion.

Then there's former IBO world bantamweight champion and current IBF mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas who is among those being considered as the possible next opponents for unified WBA and IBF as well as Ring Magazine champion Monster Naoya Inoue when he returns to the ring next year.

And there's the undefeated former WBA bantamweight interim titlist Reymart Gaballo who inflected the first to defeat American Stephon Young before Young faced Donaire as a late substitute in the WBSS semifinals and got knocked out.

Counting Nonito, that's four Pinoys still in contention in one of the most talented and loaded weight divisions in boxing today.

Meanwhile, less than ten pounds north of the bantamweight division, five other Pinoy fighters are girding and bidding to bring more world titles and glory for the country. This campaign is being led by former WBO bantamweight titlist Marlon Tapales who with Genesis Servania and Albert Pagara are rated highly in both the super bantamweight (122 lbs) and the featherweight divisions. There's also the promising duo of Jhack Tepora and Mark Magsayo who have already won titles as WBA interim and WBO inter continental champions in the featherweight class.


Jack Tepora.


Mark Magsayo.

With a total of nine Pinoy fighters fighting at top level in world competitions between 118 and 126 lbs., indeed we never had it this good.

Since becoming an ardent boxing fan and student back in my grade school days in the 60s, I have always wondered why Filipinos have generally been good in other divisions, particularly the flyweights, the sub lightweights, even as high as the middleweights, welterweights and sub welterweights but not in the bantamweights, and featherweights?

In fact, I remember in the 70s more than fifty years after Pancho Villa won the first Philippine world boxing title at flyweight or 112 lbs. class, the country had yet to make a significant mark in the bantamweight and the featherweight divisions.

At that time we have since won world titles at middleweight (Ceferino Garcia), junior welterweights (Roberto Cruz and Pedro Adigue), junior lightweight (Flash Elorde, Rene Barrientos and Ben Villaflor) and flyweight ( Small Montana, Little Dado, Bernabe Villacampo and Erbito Salavarria).

But not in the bantamweight and featherweight.

The closest that Pinoy boxers had come was when Johnny Jamito fought and lost to Brazilian world bantamweight champion champion Eder Jofre in Manila in the early 60s and Flash Elorde challenged and was stopped late on cuts by rough and rugged (read: dirty fighting) American world featherweight king Sandy Saddler in San Francisco, USA after Elorde had outpointed Saddler in a non title bout also held in Manila in the late 50s.

This changed starting in the late 1980s when Luisito Lindol Espinosa broke the Filipino jinx in the bantamweight and featherweight classes, winning world championships in both division almost in back to back manner after debuting as a flyweight.

Espinosa first won the WBA bantamweight crown by a shocking first round knockout of Thai defending champion Khaokor Galaxy in Bangkok in 1989, a few months after the Great North Luzon Earthquake.

After losing that title mainly due to problems, keeping the weight Lindol would win the WBC featherweight title in 1995 by outpointing Mexico's Manuel Medina in Tokyo, Japan. He would proceed to hold that world championship for years before the combination of advancing age and weight, personal/marital and monetary issues wore him down and he lost the title to another Mexican he had beaten earlier, Cesar Soto in 1999.

However, what initially was perceived as a strange stroke of luck turned out to be something that next waves of Filipino campaigners prove they can not only sustain but very well establish themselves as among the best, elite competitors in the 118 to 126 lbs classes.

For next came Manny Pacquiao who after winning world title at flyweight, rose to become world champion also at 122 and 126 lbs and in fact, five other higher weight classes including the junior middleweight or super welterweight. He is a rare case, though.

Then came Nonito Donaire who after also winning world title at flyweight proceeded to essay the first real Monster act in the super flyweight, bantamweight, super bantamweight and featherweight before deciding as a late career move to go back to the bantamweight where he has just reaffirmed his still elite status despite his age. And notwithstanding a loss to the new Monster, Naoya Inoue.

Marlon Tapales was also able to stamp his mark though comparatively briefly as WBO world champion, winning the title by knockout over Thailand's Pungluang Sor Singyu, himself a dreaded KO artist in 2016 and defending it against another big punching Japanese challenger Shohei Omori before being forced to vacate due to weight problem in 2017. He has since moved up to the featherweights where he is now among the top title contenders.

As stated earlier, we have nine world rated Pinoy fighters currently campaigning between 118 and 126 lbs., the most numerous after the minimumweight and the light flyweight classes or 105-108 lbs. divisions where we have as many as a baker dozen.

In the earlier years up to the recent past, most prominent Pinoy pro fighters start their boxing careers at flyweight or 112 lbs class where many also succeeded in establishing themselves as regional, international and even world champions and title holders.

That is no longer the case now as we have very, very few currently rated led by Geimel Magramo.

Donnie Nietes used to rule in the flyweights and sub divisions but he has already moved up to the junior bantamweight where Jerwin Ancajas is the IBF champion. Both may soon move up to the bantamweight especially Ancajas who has been in the 115 lbs class for years now.

Seems like we are having a paradigm shift where the bantamweight and the featherweight may become the new Pinoy niche weight divisions.

It could be us, Filipinos as a race is growing and improving physically and physiologically over time.


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.


Recent PhilBoxing.com In-House articles:

  • Top Rank Presents IBF Lightweight World Championship: Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. George Kambosos
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • Six Title Fights Highlight Spectacular Night of Boxing on Friday, June 7 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino; Mikaeljan vs. Rozicki Lead 6 Action Packed Main Event Fights
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • Boxing Continues in EVRAA ORMOC 2024
    By Carlos Costa, , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • Professional Boxing returns to Tropicana Atlantic City this Saturday night
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • Ryan O’Rourke, Danny Gonzalez, Ronny Reyes and John McDonagh Highlight Packed Undercard This Saturday Night at Paramount
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • Dmitriy Salita Named USBA Promoter of the Year; Salita Promotions’ Izmailov vs. Foster Fight Named USBA Fight of the Year at 2024 IBF Convention in San Juan, P.R.
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • GOLDEN BOY SIGNS NO. 1 WBA-RANKED SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT AND FORMER TEAM USA MEMBER KENNETH “BOSSMAN” SIMS JR.
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • Barrientes Twins, Chavez and Angel, Sign Promotional Agreement with Boxlab Promotions
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • MATCHROOM GROUP AND PITCH INTERNATIONAL STRIKES NEW GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP AND INVESTMENT
    , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • Filipino sprinter John Cabang sets PH record anew
    By Marlon Bernardino, , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • PSL Mindanao Regional Finals on May 24-26
    By Lito delos Reyes, , Thu, 09 May 2024
  • OKC, Boston Overwhelm Semis Foes
    By Teodoro Medina Reynoso, , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Herlan, Taimoor, Toshihiko, Daeloniel, Daishaun in Action May 11 in Sarawak, Malaysia
    By Carlos Costa, , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Stacked “Rumble at the Rink” card announced “Granite Chin Box Off” tournament & Two exciting title fights and hot prospects
    , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • RMC rules DC-PRISAA Meet
    By Lito delos Reyes, , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Shakur Stevenson-Artem Harutyunyan & O’Shaquie Foster-Robson Conceição World Title Doubleheader Set for July 6 at Newark’s Prudential Center LIVE on ESPN
    , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Boxing Returns Saturday Night At Tropicana Atlantic City, Tickets on Sale Now
    , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Hall of Fame Broadcaster Al Bernstein Joins Former World Champion Raul Marquez And Veteran Play-by-play Man Corey Erdman To Complete All-star Announce Team For “Big Time Boxing USA”
    , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • O’REILLY AUTO PARTS BACK THREE BLOCKBUSTER FIGHT NIGHTS
    , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Boxlab Promotions Partners with Leon Media Network for Orlando Fight Nights
    , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Sampson Boxing Renews Promotional Agreement with Lightweight Powerhouse Edwin De Los Santos
    , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • PFF conducts U16 tryouts in Mindanao
    By Lito delos Reyes, , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • 1st Talaingod Trail Run in June
    By Lito delos Reyes, , Wed, 08 May 2024
  • Japan Surpasses Mexico in Number of World Boxing Titlists; US Still Tops With 11
    By Teodoro Medina Reynoso, , Tue, 07 May 2024
  • Nuggets Fall at Home to T-Wolves Anew; Knicks Survive Pacers in Home Opener
    By Teodoro Medina Reynoso, , Tue, 07 May 2024




  •  



     
    PhilBoxing.com has been created to support every aspiring
    Filipino boxer and the Philippine boxing scene in general.
    Please send comments to feedback@philboxing.com


    PRIVATE POLICY | LEGAL DISCLAIMER
    developed and maintained by dong secuya
    © 2024 philboxing.com.