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Philippines, 24 Feb 2026 |
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Michael Dasmariñas – The Dream Begins By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Sat, 19 Jun 2021  The Theater, Virgin Hotel, Las Vegas:- Moments ago, Top Rank Promotions and its associated sponsors held the weigh-in for the huge boxing extravaganza at this sprawling facility tomorrow night. The Nevada State Athletic Commission supervised the procedures. For the main event, Naoya Inoue hit the scales exactly at 118 lbs and Michael Dasmariñas came in at 117.4 lbs. As they said at the press row: “We have a fight”! Tomorrow’s event will be opened wide for the boxing fans as the State of Nevada has “re-opened” the whole State for huge gatherings post Covid-19. There will be no mandatory covid-19 testing for the audience as well as the press. Masks are optional. Judging from the fans that attended the weigh-in and the decent number of media people present, the event that features a well-known and undefeated Japanese bantamweight, WBA and IBF champion, Naoya Inoue (20-0-0, 17KO) versus a relatively unknown and up and coming Filipino slugger Michael Dasmariñas (30-2-1, 20KO), will draw a decent number of live audience. Tickets prices start at $75.00 Hopefully it will do well on ESPN too! Dasmariñas is the mandatory challenger for Inoue’s IBF title. He told this writer that he is raring to go after completing his final training days at the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood supervised by Coach Tacy Macalos with the able assistance of Ting (Lucas Sugar) Arriosa. Being tagged a humongous underdog does not fazed him at all. Clearly, I can see the hunger in his eyes and the desire to be amongst the best in his division. He will fight Inoue for both the WBA and IBF belts held by the Japanese star. Tomorrow’s fight marks the true beginning of Dasmariñas’ dream as a fighter. For him it will involved all the marbles. A victory will catapult him to “big time” boxing as it carries a win against one of the present best bantamweights who is well revered not only in his homeland but the whole boxing world as well. More importantly, it means bigger purses in his next fights as well. A loss may not carry a negative stigma as Inoue is a different breed of a fighter and losing to him will give Dasmariñas lots of lessons he can carry as he goes back to the drawing board. A victory by Dasmariñas will not come that easy. That is well reflected in the Vegas SportsBooks. First, fighting on a huge stage for the first time in the US may give him butterflies in his tummy. He must overcome these and engage all the tricks from his bag of experience to pull through. He must show that big Bicolano heart! Yes there is a possibility that he can land that proverbial KO punch as he has done many times before but given that his last fight was in 2019 against Artid Banrumgauea (TKO 7th round), it may take a gigantic effort to do so. Ring rust, they say. On the other side of the coin, he has a 12-fight winning streak with one draw so that evens up his chances. Plus he is hungry as hell for a win and “a place in the sun”. Added to that, it appears that Inoue is looking past Dasmariñas and mentions the names of Nonito Donaire Jr (WBO Bantamweight king) and John Riel Casimero (WBC Bantamweight champion) more often than Dasmariñas. He wants to beat the two champions and be the undisputed king of the bantamweights. Also in spite of being more active than Dasmriñas, scoring a SD win against Nonito Donaire Jr., in November 2019 and a KO over Jason Maloney in October 2020 he is under pressure from his promoter, Hideyuki Ohashi to score a very early KO to raise his value and score better purses in his next fight. More importantly, Donaire broke Inoue’s right orbital bone and his nose. No matter what people say, I still think Inoue has that monkey on his back. Dasmariñas can punch hard and if he hits the same spots, chances are he may break them again. That part of Inoue’s face should be a target for Dasmariñas. With all of the above, chances are Inoue may be ripe for the taking. Hopefully Dasmariñas can make it happen. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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