Z “The Dream” Gorres will fight for the vacant Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super-flyweight title against Waengpetch Chuwatana of Thailand on March 18 at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex, 45 days after taking on Jose Alfredo Tirado on Feb. 4 at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas.
Waengpetch, who once held the OPBF belt, lost to Japan’s Masayuki Arinaga last Dec. 5 in Yokohama. But Arinaga later gave up the belt.
Waengpetch won the belt over Eiji Kojima on Aug. 16, 2003 by split decision and defended it against Shin Ogata in February 2004 by split decision and over Kojima once more in May 2004 via second-round knockout. Waengpetch beat Ogata again in October 2004.
Third chance
Arinaga took the title from Waengpetch via split decision last March and Waengpetch failed to regain it last December. It will be the Thai’s third chance to win the title.
Gorres has been the No.1 contender since August 2005 but was bypassed several times by the Japanese promoters.
Last September, with the intervention of OPBF president Frank Quill, Gorres was given the mandatory challenger status.
But instead of fighting Gorres, Arinaga opted for Waengpetch as challenger.
Arinaga’s camp told Gorres’ manager Antonio Aldeguer that the Japanese champion would vacate the title if he won his title defense and would automatically challenge Waengpetch for the same title if the result was different.
Arinaga is scheduled to challenge for the WBC title held by Masamori Tokuyama, forcing him to vacate the OPBF belt.
Gorres, who holds a 21 -1-1 (12 KOs) win-loss-draw record, will have to win over Tirado to get his momentum going against Waengpetch, who is 22 -7-2 (13 KOs). (
