LADY luck smiled on Dondon Sultan as he finally took home the Pan-Asian Boxing Association (Paba) welterweight title after knocking out the erstwhile unbeaten Russian champion Anton Solopov in the first round of their championship fight at the Energetik Sports Complex in Surgut, Russia yesterday.
But Jimrex Jaca wasn’t as lucky as he failed to keep the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) superfeatherweight belt after suffering a unanimous-decision loss to the WBC No.5 Nobuhito Honmo in Tokyo Saturday evening.
Heavily favored
Jaca, who was heavily favored to win the title vacated by Randy Suico, failed to counter his way against the slick-punching Honmo, who dominated the fight from the sixth to the 12th rounds.
Solopov, a tough puncher who had 180 wins in 205 amateur bouts, carried a 12-0 win-loss slate going into the fight and was heavily favored to win. However, the Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte-native Sultan quickly went to work to bring home the World Boxing Association-affiliated regional belt.
This was the second time the SGG Stable fighter fought for the title as he failed to win in his first try by losing to Thailand’s Parkpoom Jangphonak in Bangkok last October. He also twice attempted to take the WBC-affiliated OPBF titles.
Solopov snatched the belt from Jangphonak. Sultan improved his win-loss-draw record to 13-6-3 with 7 KOs. Solopov dropped to 12-1, 9 KOs.
Solopov was no ordinary fighter, as the Kostya Tszyu-managed fighter was a gold-medal winner in the lightweight division during the 1998 World Amateur Boxing championship in Argentina. He beat Miguel Cotto for the gold.
Sharp
Jaca was sharp in the first five rounds but failed to take control of the fight.
Craig Waller of Australia scored it, 117-114, Salven Lagumbay of the Philippines saw it, 116-112, and Yuji Fukuchi of Japan tallied it, 116-113, all for Honmo, who survived a cut above his right eye in the fourth round due to the power punches of the Sibulan, Negros Oriental-native Jaca.
Jaca suffered a cut above his right eye in the sixth caused by an accidental headbutt
