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Out of Gerry Penalosa's Shadow: 3 Top Bantam Prospects From Mindanao Step Forward PhilBoxing.com Tue, 28 Apr 2009 Kidapawan City, North Cotabato - As the curtain falls on Gerry Penalosa, one of the best Filipino bantamweights ever who dominated the division for so long, three young 118-pounders from the Southern Philippine island of Mindanao are finally getting out of the shadows into the limelight of bigtime boxing. It is an unusual coincidence though that all three of them -- Rolando "Smooth Operator" Magbanua, Jundy "Pretty Boy" Maraon and Glenn "The Rock" Porras -- not only come from the same island. They also fight out of the same province, North Cotabato, and belong to just one boxing team, the Braveheart Boxing Club of North Cotabato owned by Vice Governor Manny Pinol and his 10 brothers. Magbanua, 23, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Interim Oriental Bantamweight Champion, recently defended his title with a 3rd round stoppage of a Thai challenger, two months after scoring a 6th round technical knockout of Mexican Jose Angel Cota both in Cebu City. Magbanua, who comes from the frontier town of Pigcawayan which is a few kilometers away from the main camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), remains undefeated with 15 wins and 10 KOs. "After two or three more fights, Magbanua would be ready for a world title fight," said Vice Governor Pinol who nurtured the Ilonggo fighter since his days as an amateur boxer and a member of the national team. Maraon, 24, the WBO Asia Pacific champion who wrested the crown from compatriot Jason Igera via a devastating 3rd round KO Feb. 21 at the Cebu City Coliseum, has a record of 13 wins with 1 draw and 10 KOs. The technical draw was a fight against Manny Pacquiao protege Ernel Fontanilla who suffered a cut in the 2nd round of their 8 round fight three years ago. Tall for a bantamweight at 5' 6", Maraon, descendant of migrants from Macrohon, Southern Leyte, is a known power-puncher who could knock out an opponent with a single punch. Originally from Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, he is set to defend his title on May 23 in Ozamis City against a Mexican challenger. The third outstanding bantamweight prospect from Mindanao is Porras, who is a southpaw like Maraon. Porras, a relentless attacker whose fighting style is made for TV, is 23 years old and is the more experienced among the three with 22 fights, losing only twice, and scoring 15 KOs. Porras, who is the reigning WBO Asia Pacific junior bantamweight youth champion, has won his last eight fights by KO and none of the bouts lasted beyond five rounds. In his last fight in Cebu City, Porras needed only a little over 2 minutes to knock out Thai fighter Daothon Sissuey in the first round. "These boys will take over where Gerry left off but we will have to carefully plan things and set specific targets so that each will be aiming for different titles in the same division," said Vice Gov. Pinol. "It's quite difficult to be in a situation like this, but the boys understand that each of them will be given an equal chance to prove his worth," he said. First in the line is Magbanua who is considered to have the more mature and flawless fighting style and could easily go up against the likes of Fernando Montiel, the WBO Interim champion, and Eric Morel. "But the presence of three world caliber bantamweights in just one boxing club is a healthy sign for Philippine boxing. That simply means we have a lot of talents who could move forward when the great champions like Penalosa and Manny Pacquiao would leave the boxing scene," said Vice Gov. Pinol. As of today, Braveheart Boxing Club, which was established barely six years ago, already has three WBO regional titles, the most recent of which is the WBO Oriental junior flyweight title won by Edrin "The Sting" Dapudong via a 7th round stoppage of veteran Bert Batawang in Cebu City April 25. Two other Braveheart boxers -- featherweight Lorenzo "Thunderbolt" Villanueva, 22, (14 wins, 14 KOs) and miniflyweight Rommel ":Little Assassin" Asenjo, 19, (13 wins, 2 losses, 11 KOs) are set to fight for the WBO Oriental title in their division this year.  |
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