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Philippines, 22 Mar 2026 |
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Donaire Listed as Interim Bantam Champion; Ten Pinoys in Top Three World Title Contenders By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Fri, 25 Jul 2025  Donaire (L) defeats Campos in Argentina in June. Rankings by the four major boxing sanctioning bodies as of July 11, 2025 the latest have Nonito Donaire as Interim world champion at bantamweight with the WBA and ten other Filipino fighters among the top or at least top three contenders in various weight classes. Given the cut-off however, Manny Pacquiao was not in the top ten in the welterweight in the WBC ranking. But with his superb performance in his recent title challenge of defending champion Mario Barrios that ended in controversial draw, Pacquiao will most likely not only regain his erstwhile #5 ranking but even break top three in the division. Donaire becomes world champion again, albeit Interim in nature after he outpointed Andres Campos of Chile for the then vacant title last June 25, 2025 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mexican-American Antonio Vargas is the regular titleholder who will defend against Japan's Daigo Higa on July 30, 2025 in Yokohama, Japan. Meanwhile ten Filipino fighters have been listed among the top three contenders in various weight divisions, including three as #1 contenders. The Filipino top one world contenders are Charly Suarez at super featherweight with the WBO, Carl Jammes Martin at super bantamweight also with the WBO and Vince Paras at light flyweight with the IBF. Suarez is given another crack at the WBO title held by Mexico's Emanuel Navarette after he was denied of a TKO victory with the referee going to the judges scorecards after Navarette was ruled unfit to continue on account of cut wrongly called as a result of head clash. The other Filipino top rated contenders are Christian Balunan and Ian Abne who are #3 and #4 at minimumweight with the IBF where #1 and #2 are both vacant. The IBF champion is also a Filipino, Pedro Taduran. Vic Saludar is #2 also at minimumweight with the WBO behind champion Oscar Collazo and #1 contender Ronald Chacon. Jayson Vayson and Regie Suganob are also listed #3 and #4 at light flyweight with the IBF where the #1 and #2 contender spots are vacant behind new Thai champion Thanomsak Simsri. As mentioned earlier, Vince Paras is rated #1 contender in the division with the WBO supplanting Suganob who dropped down to #2. Mexico's Rene Santiago is the current WBO titlist. Meanwhile Alvin John Paciones remained as #2 contender in the weight class with the WBA which champion is Erick Rosas of Dominican Republic. Lastly, former unified titlist Marlon Tapales is rated #2 in the super bantamweight with the WBC and #3 in the same division with the IBF where the top two contender slots are vacant Japanese Monster Naoya Inoue is the undisputed world champion of the division. The latest rankings of the WBC, WBA, IBF and the WBO are carried in the BoxingScene website. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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