MOST boxers are rarely given an opportunity to fight for a world championship while some chosen few are lucky enough to even contend just once.
Although on such short notice, former World Boxing Council flyweight champion Edrin Dapudong capitalized on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and accepted a world championship bout with Mexican Hernan Marquez for the World Boxing Association flyweight title fight in Sonora, Mexico on July 2.
?We took the chance as Dapudong is in shape after his impressive win last Saturday via the short route and is an experienced fighter who has already proven his worth when he won the WBC Silver title in Mexico last year,? ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Dapudong, 24, fought last June 11 at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Cebu City and scored an impressive fourth-round stoppage win over 17-year-old Indonesian Benja Loemoli.
Aldeguer feels the 22-year-old Marquez picked Dapudong as a last-minute replacement for his scheduled first world title defense after acquiring the crown just last month with an 11th round technical knockout over erstwhile titleholder Luis Concepcion.
Biggest chance
Aldeguer explained that ALA Promotions decided to take the offer immediately because this might be Dapudong?s biggest chance at becoming a world champion.
?Opportunities like this should not be passed up if the fighter is experienced like Dapudong, a former silver champion. If it was a young inexperienced fighter, we wouldn?t have accepted the fight. It?s the same with what happened with Manny Pacquiao, when he was a just a last-minute replacement to fight (Lehlohonolo) Ledwaba and he also took the fight on two weeks? notice,? said Aldeguer.
In his first trip to the US, Pacquiao was training with Freddie Roach when he got an offer to fight Ledwaba, the then IBF super bantamweight title. Pacquiao knocked out Ledwaba in six rounds.
Dapudong, 22-3 with 13 knockouts, isn?t a stranger to the fight scene in Mexico and has fought there twice, winning the WBC Silver crown with a stunning first-round demolition over Mexican prospect Jesus Jimenez last year.
He, however, lost his crown in a 12-round unanimous decision to Mexican Wilbert Uicab in his next fight in Mexico three months after.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on June 19, 2011.
