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Philippines, 21 Nov 2025 |
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When KO Artist Champions Got Iced: Morris East and the Biggest Title Winning Knockout Victories by Pinoy Fighters (First of Two Installments) By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Tue, 19 Oct 2021  Tapales (L) attacks Sor Singyu in the body. Through the annals of Philippine boxing, Pinoy fighters have in numerous occasions won world titles by knocking out their foreign defending champion opponents mostly on hostile arenas. But extremely rare were the times that Filipino fighters managed to accomplish the feat against highly favored defending champions who themselves were feared knockout artists, a few even undefeated before the fight. And what made their upset knockout victories even more special and spectacular was their coming back from being initially knocked down or braving the constant threat of knockout in pulling out the win. Such was the case of Morris East and four other courageous Pinoy challengers namely Nonito Donaire, Rolando Pascua, Sonny Boy Jaro and Marlon Tapales who were generally installed as underdogs in their world title quest and who had to figuratively go through the gauntlet in what amounted to dogfights in five of the most memorable world championship upsets in recent memory involving Pinoy fighters as title challengers. Readers may wonder why boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is not included in this list despite figuring in many world championship bouts in his storied career. The reason is except for his IBF world title challenge versus South African Lehlo Lebwaba in 2001 and fight against Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera in 2004, Pacquiao was never installed as underdog in his succeeding title bouts. And while the pre fight favorites Lebwaba and Barrera respectively were known as KO artist and noted for power punching, Manny never really had problems disposing of the two, though not as easily he did against another noted power puncher Ricky Hatton in 2009. In short, Manny never had to go through a slugfest in beating reputed KO artist or powerpunching defending world champions in his heydays. He was that talented and great a powerful fighter in those times. In fact, the last time Manny had been to real dogfight against a reputed KO artist power puncher was in 2000 versus Australia's Nadel Hussein and that was only for a minor international title at super bantamweight which doesn't qualify in this discussion. Premises established, here are the five biggest upset KO title wins by Filipino fighters in recent memory in order of significance: 5. MARLON TAPALES KO11 PUNGLUANG SOR SINGYU, WBO WORLD BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE BOUT, Ayutthaya, Thailand, July 27, 2016 Marlon Tapales, coming off his OPBF bantamweight title conquest of Japanese Shohei Omori earlier in 2006 was installed as mandatory challenger to Pungluang Sor Singyu for his World Boxing Organization world bantamweight crown. Sor Singyu had regained the WBO title by knockout over Japanese Ryo Akaho in August 2015 and defended it by technical decision over Filipino Jethro Pabustan. He had originally won the WBO belt in 2012 by stoppage over Filipino AJ Banal in the Philippines but lost in on points to Namibian Paulus Ambuda. The Thai was a reputed knockout artist, winning 35 of his 52 victories at that time via the short route. Tapales was therefore a decided underdog against Sor Singyu when the fight unfolded on July 27, 2016 in Ayutthaya, the old royal Capital city 80 kilometers north of Bangkok. After a fairly even first four rounds, the action heat up in the fifth with Sor Singyu notching his best round as he floored Tapales twice for a 10-7 round. 
Tapales (R) drops Sor Singyu. It appeared that the Thai would end it in the following rounds but Tapales came back strongly and proceeded to deck Sor Singyu in the sixth. From then on, it became a nip and tuck affair with the two holding out for even stronger finish in the so called championship rounds. But Tapales after making adjustments proved to have more in tank than Sor Singyu who went down twice more in round 11, and was knocked out cleanly. Tapales held his hands waist low, landing sneaky body shots on Sor Singyu, who didn't take Tapales' body attacks seriously until the end came. The end came on a four punch power shot combination, when Tapales landed an overhand right to the head, followed by two body hooks, and an overhand left to the head. Sor Singyu fell backwards under the ropes, where referee Ramon Pena counted him out on his back. Tapales was slightly ahead on two of the three scorecards when the end came in the 11th round. 4. SONNY BOY JARO KO6 PONGSAKLEK WONJONGKAM, Chonburi, Thailand, March 2, 2012 Pongsaklek Wonjongkam was on the second of his record reign as WBC and lineal world flyweight champion when he met Sonny Boy Jaro in defense of his titles in Chonburi, Thailand on March 2, 2012. He had originally won the title in 2001 by beating Malcolm Tunacao by first round knockout in the Filipino's second defense of the championship he wrested via KO over Medgoen 3k Battery, the conqueror of Manny Pacquiao. The Thai's first reign lasted more than six years where he set the record for most title defenses before being upset by Japan's Daisuke Naito on points in 2007. He had previously defended against Naito twice before, including a 34 second knockout win which is the fastest in the division's history. 
Sonny Boy Jaro (R) punishes long time world champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. Wonjongkam regained the crown in March 2010 by defeating Koki Kameda of Japan and defended the title four more times before meeting Jaro. He came into the fight not only as defending WBC and lineal world flyweight champion but as #8 best pound for pound fighter in the world having won 83 of 88 contests, 43 by knockout. Jaro on the other hand with a so so 33-10-5 ledger with 23 KOs, was only rated #8 by the WBC. But Jaro relished the role of the underdog challenger and gamely traded with Wonjongkam from the opening bell, seemingly unfazed by the Thai's reputation as a durable power puncher who could end the fight in a flash. Jaro started strong and dropped Wonjongkam with a right uppercut in first round and dropped him again with a hard straight right to head in the third round. Seemingly unperturbed by the knockdowns from which he came back before to score some of his signature knockout wins, Wonjongkam continued to trade with Jaro in the next two rounds, even managing to stagger the Filipino in some instances drawing cheers from partisan crowd who were expecting Jaro to wilt further in the coming round. But that was not to be so. Displaying uncommon valor and resilience as well as smothering punching power, Jaro knocked out Wonjongkam for the full ten count in the sixth round - the first time this had occurred in Wonjongkam's 28 WBC title bouts. The knockout win by Jaro was named Upset of the Year 2012 by the Ring Magazine. To be continued. 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.  |
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