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Philippines, 23 Feb 2026 |
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Michael Dasmariñas – The Road to Recognition By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Sun, 13 Jun 2021  At the moment, the Philippines have very few world boxing champions. Thanks to Nonito Donaire, Jr., we added another one last Memorial Day Weekend. And it appears the World Boxing Association is ready to restore Manny Pacquiao’s welterweight title so that is even better. The more, the merrier! Could we get another one on June 19th at the Virgin Hotel at Las Vegas? I say the chances are slightly better than what most people think! Michael Dasmariñas fights one of Japan’s best bantamweights in Naoya “Monster” Inoue. Inoue is undefeated. He counts Nonito Donaire, Jr. as one of his victims but that does not necessarily mean he gets an automatic victory against the Filipino IBO bantamweight champion, Dasmariñas! The bookies at Las Vegas will surely disagree and they will put Inuoe as a huge favorite and to win by KO. That’s okay because most of the time they are right but then there is that chance that they maybe wrong. It has happened too many times before and we all know it. I say that Dasmariñas’ chances are better now than if he fought Inuoe before the Japanese star fought Nonito Donaire and Jason Maloney. Inuoe went 12 very tough rounds against Nonito Donaire and the after effects of that fight, as Coach Edito Villamor has observed, made Inuoe a different fighter. Yes, he beat Jason Maloney after Donaire fight but “he was not the same” Villamor stated. Wouldn’t it be nice if Villamor is right and Dasmariñas scores an upset giving him the WBO belt? Nothing wrong with wishful thinking, isn’t it? If he does, his road to recognition and the big money that follows such successes will open widely. And, if managed correctly, it will bring bigger fights and all the accolades that go with it. He may even land a unification fight with Nonito Donaire, Jr., in an interesting all-Filipino title fight. Dasmariñas arrived last Memorial Weekend in the US. That of course is a good move because he needs to shake off jetlag and get acclimatized to the West Coast weather. The fact that its summer now and the weather is turning towards higher temperatures is great. It would be easier for him to get used to the US weather and prepare himself for the sizzling Las Vegas heat. Team Dasmariñas plans to get the Filipino champion more training in LA prior to moving to Las Vegas. To do that, they set their priorities. First on the list is arranging for a place to continue his training. Then there is the matter of housing and grocery shopping. Lastly, getting proper gears. With the first two priorities set and with the help of Coach Ting (Lucas Sugar) Arriosa, they finally found time to drive to my dental office at Canoga Park on his last day of training in LA so I can custom design and fabricate a mouthguard for the champ. I would have preferred if they did that earlier so Dasmariñas could have had time to use the mouthguard during the week of sparring at the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood. But that did not happen. He will wear his new mouthguard during the fight without “breaking it in”. No worries though, I am confident it will fit comfortably and he will have no issues with it. Dasmariñas will sport a mouthguard that embodies the color of the Philippine Flag. It will be similar in style with the one Manny Pacquiao used in his fight against Oscar de la Hoya. Hopefully, it will bring him the same luck as Pacquiao and scores an upset. We shall see. Photo: Michael Dasmariñas (2nd from right) holds his mouthguard during a visit at Dr Ed de la Vegas' clinic in Canoga Park. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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