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2022 Review: Performances That Somehow Make Up for Worst Year By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Thu, 29 Dec 2022  Philippine Boxing started 2022 auspiciously with five Filipino world champions including Mark Magsayo who in January won the WBC featherweight crown by upset points victory over then long reigning American champion Gary Russell Jr. But the year was just nearly half over and we found ourselves title-less with Magsayo himself losing the same title by decision to Mexico's Rey Vargas in his first defense last July 9, 2022 in Las Vegas. In June, Johnriel Casimero was officially stripped by the WBO of his bantamweight title after earlier being prevented (disqualified) by the host British Boxing Board of Control from participating in the scheduled official weighin and making his mandatory title defense against British challenger Paul Butler due to alleged violation of BBBofC's sauna bath rule. Earlier, then world titlists Rene Mark Cuarto, Nonito Donaire and Jerwin Ancajas dropped their respective titles losing out to foreign opposition abroad. Cuarto travelled all the way to Mexico and lost his IBF minimumweight crown by split decision to hometown boy Daniel Valladares. Donaire challenged Naoya Inoue in another world title unification held in Japan and lost anew to the Japanese Monster by 2nd round TKO ceding this time his newly regained WBC belt. And after reigning for five long years; Ancajas was finally defrocked losing by one sided points decision to Argentine tough boy Fernando Martinez in Las Vegas. Ancajas attempted to regain his once long held IBF super flyweight crown but Martinez frustrated him again with almost similar verdict in their immediate rematch also held in the USA. It was a quintuple whammy to say the least as former WBO super flyweight titlist and four weight divisions world champion Donnie Nietes likewise failed in his try to regain the WBO crown from his former title victim Kazuto Ioka getting down in defeat via unanimous decision in Japan. What made the year particularly galling at that point was our then continuing sorry record especially in Japan with a losing clip of nearly 90 percent as of the past three years, of course not including the prime pandemic period where there boxing was temporarily stopped. This prompted the Games and Amusements Board in cooperation with local boxing players and stakeholders to institute reform measures to address the alarming situation that has, heading to the yearend, borne some positive results. Through this challenging highly testy year, there have been a lot of bright spots and ring performances and performers that are worth citing as we welcome the new year. These include the following: 1. Vincent Astrolabio back to back wins over Guillermo Rigondeaux (SD) and Nikolay Potapov (KO). He is now IBF mandatory challenger to Naoya Inoue and could potentially fight for the vacant WBO and IBF belts versus Puerto Rican Emmanuel Rodriguez next year. 2 Dave Apolinario first round knockout of veteran South African Gideon Buthelezi for the International Boxing Organization (IBO) world flyweight championship in Capetown. 3. Jade Bornea KO 3/12 over world rated Muhammed Obbadi for the WBC-NABF super flyweight championship in the US. Bornea is now the mandatory challenger to new IBF super flyweight champion Fernando Martinez. 4. Johnriel Casimero's successful ring comeback via 2nd round knockout of world rated Japanese Ryu Akaho in South Korea. The fight held in December 3 was first ruled as No Contest by the Japanese referee but was overturned by the Korea Boxing Members Commission or KBM on protest by the Casimero camp and the GAB. 5. Flyweight Miel Fajardo upset 2nd round knockout over world and Ring rated Argentine Agustin Mauro Gauto in the USA. Fajardo who is now also world rated at the division followed this up fittingly by recording the fastest knockout on record in winning the Asian Boxing Federation flyweight title in Thailand very recently. 6. Jayr Raquinel winning the WBO Intercontinental super flyweight championship via 2nd round knockout of South African Landile Ngxewe in Capetown. 7 Ifugao boxing sensation Carl Jammes Martin winning the WBA Asia super bantamweight championship via 2nd round knockout of Thai former world title challenger Kongrich Nantapech 8. Esneth Domingo scoring back to back KO wins in Japan. He is currently rated #2 in the Philippines at light flyweight behind Christian Araneta and #13 in the world by boxrec. 9. Former amateur standout Charly Suarez winning all his five fights this year, 3 by KOs. He is currently Philippine and WBA as well as IBF Asia super featherweight champion 10. Leonard Sarcon wresting the WBA Asia featherweight championship via 12 rounds unanimous decision over South Korean defending champion and KO artist Jeon Soon Kang in Seoul. 11. .Jayson Veyson beating Indian KO artist Nutlai Laibiakkima by points decision for the WBA ABC light flyweight championship 12. Adrian Lerasan scoring a 9th round TKO over Thai Nattapong Jankaew in Bangkok for the WBA Asia super flyweight crown. It was Lerasan's second straight KO win in Thailand. Of course, another welcome development has been the nomination of certain Filipino fighters in world title eliminator bouts by the WBC and other major boxing sanctioning bodies such as Mark Magsayo vs Isaac Dogboe of Ghana in the featherweight division, Nonito Donaire vs Jason Moloney of Australia in the bantamweight class, Mark Vicelles against fellow Filipino Regie Suganob in the light flyweight division. Melvin Jerusalem will open up the Pinoys campaign next year as he challenges Japanese WBO minimumweight champion Masataka Taniguchi in early January in Japan underneath the Kazuto Ioka vs Joshua Franco for the unified WBA-WBO super flyweight championship. Former WBO bantamweight champion Marlon Tapales is pursuing his mandatory challenge of unified WBA-IBF super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan also by first half of 2023. Significantly, former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao likewise returned to the ring in a 6 round boxing exhibition against South Korean martial arts instructor DK Yoo and scored an easy decision win. This could be a prelude to his comeback to competitive professional boxing in 2023. 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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