Who would have thought that halfway through 2022, the Philippines will be without a world boxing champion?
A few days ago, the last man standing fell hard.
Mark Magsayo dropped a split decision to Mexican Rey Vargas at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Magsayo knew he had to come up with a superb showing to keep his stranglehold of the World Boxing Council featherweight strap.
It was obvious that he went the extra mile in attempting to do just that.
But it was also crystal-clear that Vargas’ game plan worked wonders in his bid to dethrone Magsayo and leave the Philippines, suddenly, stripped of its majestic place among the world’s powers of the fight game.
Beginning 2022, there were five reigning Filipino world champions.
There was International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-fly king Jerwin Ancajas and John Riel Casimero, the flashy and controversial World Boxing Organization bantamweight boss.
Nonito Donaire was also on the radar screen being the World Boxing Council bantam ruler and Rene Mark Cuarto, the IBF minimumweight supremo.
In no time, Ancajas was upset by Fernando Martinez of Argentine in February while Casimero had his crown stripped because of off-the-ring shenanigans in May.
Adding fuel to the fire was Naoya Inoue’s savage beating of Donaire in Saitama in June.
Then a week before Magsayo’s reign ended, Cuarto suffered a disputable decision defeat in Mexico.
But, ever the optimist, Sean Gibbons, who runs the Manny Pacquiao-owned MP Promotions isn’t about to drink the Kool-Aid.
“We’ll have one to two (world title) belts by the end of the year,” exclaimed Gibbons from the US when contacted yesterday.
