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Philippines, 23 Mar 2026 |
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April Triple Thriller PhilBoxing.com Mon, 23 Mar 2009  Rolando Magbanua. Cebu City - Three of Mindanao's most exciting and thrilling fighters return to the centerstage of boxing at the Cebu Coliseum on April 18 to appear in three regional championships sanctioned by the World Boxing Organization titled "April's Triple Thriller." Undefeated bantamweights Rolando "Smooth Operator" Magbanua, 23, and Jundy "Pretty Boy" Maraon, 24, will make the first defense of their WBO regional titles they won via spectacular fashion on Feb. 21 also at the Cebu Coliseum while 23-year-old Edrin "The Sting" Dapudong will challenge the veteran Bert Batawang, the 36-year-old Cebuano fighter who holds the WBO Oriental junior flyweight crown. Magbanua, 14 wins with 9 knockouts, will defend his WBO Interim Oriental bantamweight title against an undefeated Costa Rican challenger, Alejandro "Timon" Martinez who has a record of 15 wins with 8 knockouts and 1 draw while Maraon, 13 wins, 10 knocouts with 1 draw, will defend his WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight crown against a still unnamed challenger. Cebu City promoter Sammy Gelloani and Vice Gov. Manny Pinol of Braveheart Boxing of North Cotabato who are co-promoting the card, decided to move the event from April 4 to April 18 after Magbanua's earlier announced opponent, former world bantamweight champion Ratanachai Sor Vorapin, backed out of the fight. Gelloani, who has been helping Vice Gov. Pinol in promoting the fights of the Mindanao fighters in Cebu City, expressed disappointment over the decision of the Thai challenger to back out, however, said that the postponement of the card proved to be beneficial since Maraon, who injured his hand in winning the WBO Asia Pacific title via a 3rd round KO over Jason Egera, could now appear in the card. "Maraon has fully recovered from the swollen hand and could now fight on April 18," Gelloani said. Maraon's opponent will be known within the week but negotiations are underway with the manager of the reigning Indonesian bantamweight champion, he said. Magbanua won the WBO interim Oriental title with a 6th round TKO of Mexican Jose Angel Cota while Maraon scored a spectacular 3rd round KO of Egera to win the Asia Pacific title. Their victories propelled them to the world ranking of the WBO with Maraon rated No. 13 and Magbanua No. 15 in the world. The fight against Batawang will be Dapudong's first attempt at a regional WBO title since relinguishing the WBO Asia Pacific Miniflyweight Youth title after he moved up to the lightflyweight division. Also seeing action in the April 18 card are the diminutive miniflyweight Rommel "Little Assassin" Asenjo, 19, (12 wins, 2 losses, 10 KOs) who was loudly applauded by Cebuano boxing fans in his first appearance at the Cebu City Coliseum with his 3rd round stoppage of his opponent and undefeated featherweight Lorenzo "Thunderbolt" Villanueva, 22, who holds a record of 13 wins with 13 knockouts.  |
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