Philippines, 29 Jan 2026
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GABUTAN DEFEATS MERLIN, WINS WBO ORIENTAL CROWN


PhilBoxing.com


Dayer Gabutan captured his first professional boxing title when he won the vacant WBO Oriental Bantamweight crown defeating Jilo Merlin via a unanimous decision (116-113 twice and 115-113) in their 12-round minor title fight. The fight was the main event of Saturday night?s show presented by Las Vegas Robert Barragan Productions in cooperation with Art Afable and Naris Singwancha Promotion at the Euro Asia Hotel, Angeles City.

Merlin was the aggressor for most part of the 12-round bout but it was usually Gabutan?s punches that found their connect scoring with crisp jabs to the head and piling up the points in the process.

In the supporting main event, up-and-coming Jecker Buhawe of the Afable Boxing Stable had a tough start against the a very crafty Michael Rodriguez in their 10-round flyweight bout before regaining his composure and finishing up strong to win by a unanimous decision (98-90, 97-91, and 95-94). It was a step-up in competition for the young Buhawe against the 34-fight veteran, many of whom was against the better fighters of Thailand. In the first half of the bout, Buhawe had trouble landing clear punches on the elusive Rodriguez. However, Rodriguez began tiring out in the second half allowing Buhawe to re-organize his offense and ultimately obtaining control of the fight to snatch the win. Rodriguez was also deducted a point in the first and last rounds for repeated low blows.

The most interesting fight of the evening belongs to the super-bantamweight bout between sparmates Jaypee Alipio and Randy Megrino. The two fighters slugged it out as soon as the opening bell sounded to the appreciative cheering of the crowd, most of whom were Caucasian customers of the club co-sponsoring the promotion and the club?s pretty bunnies serving as round girls and waitresses at the same time. A left uppercut by Megrino in the 2nd round dropped Alipio for a mandatory 8-count. Shortly later, another combination by Megrino capped by a huge right hook to the head dropped Alipio for the second time. At this point, Alipio was was too dazed to continue and the referee immediately stopped the fight to give Megrino a TKO win in 1:57 of the second round. So impressed by the explosive performance of Megrino that popular Thai promoter, Naris Singwancha, who was in attendance of the event accompanied by international promoter
Aljoe Jaro, graciously provided a US$200 bonus to the winner.

Rounding off the results of the other bouts:

Edison Berwela was a comfortable winner against Jovill Marayan scoring a unanimous decision victory by an identical 79-73 tally in all three judges? scorecards. Marayan, who resembles Milan Melindo, was not as active as his more illustrious look-alike and was often the recipient of Berwela?s busy hands;

Alejandro Anas lived up to his Guty Espadas resemblance scoring two knockdowns in the 2nd round plus another one in the third en route to a unanimous decision victory (59-52, 59-53, and 58-54) over the comebacking and former Philippine junior welterweight contender Jury Noda in their 6-round welterweight bout;

Giovanni Escaner pummelled Leo de Guia with punishing body punches all night long to score a unanimous decision victory ( 60-55, 59-55 twice) in their 6-round flyweight bout;

Mateo Handig defeated Redney Quezon via a unanimous decision (57-56, 58-55 twice) in their 6-round junior flyweight bout;
Jonel Borbon defeated Jaymar Bautista via a 1st round TKO in their super-flyweight bout scheduled for 4 rounds;


Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salvador Lopez.


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