IT’S a bitter reality, Philippine pro boxing has gone downhill.
Since last year, the Philippines has suffered one traumatic setback after another in the boxing ring with three of our marquee fighters – Manny Pacquiao, Brian Viloria and Nonito Donaire Jr. – dethroned as world champions.
Left with belts are World Boxing Organization (WBO) lightflyweight champion Donnie Nietes and International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightflyweight titlist Johnriel Casimero.
Likewise, our top prospects Milan Melindo and AJ “Bazooka” Banal, and some other young and old fighters have failed in their respective bids to join the world’s elite list of gloved beak-busters. Then until now there seems to be no end to the distressing trend of over-matched Filipino boxers losing and being knocked out abroad.
Pacquiao suffered back-to-back losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, who brutally knocked him out in the sixth round in Las Vegas last Dec. 8.
Although some boxing observers and fans believe Pacquiao’s best days in the ring are over, Pacquiao’s longtime trainer, Freddie Roach, thinks otherwise.
“Look, we all thought he beat Bradley. And in the Marquez fight, I thought he was going to win by knockout when he made a mistake and ran into a shot,” says Roach.
Marquez, whose face was a bloody mess and his nose broken, and on the verge of being knocked out, connected with a perfectly timed counter right hand to score a dramatic and stunning knockout with one second remaining in the sixth round.
Rumble
The Fighter of the Decade will be going up against Mexican-American Brandon Rios in a 12-round welterweight rumble on November 24 in Macau in a bid to resurrect his dwindling career.
It will be a make-or-break fight for the only boxer in history who has won world titles in eight different weight divisions and who once sat atop the pound-for-pound rankings.
In fact, Roach is convinced that his prized ward can call it a career if he gets knocked out by Rios, specially that the fighting congressman is turning 35 a few weeks after that fight.
Donaire, on the other hand, suffered a 12-round unanimous-decision loss to former Cuban two-time Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux in New York on April 13. His defeat cost him his World Boxing Association (WBA) and WBO 122-pound titles.
Donaire, who is moving up to the 126-lb featherweight class after experiencing difficulty of making the 122-lb limit in his previous fight against Rigondeaux, has a fight tentatively scheduled for Nov. 9. The name of his opponent is still unknown.
The Filipino-American fighter was supposed to face former rival Vic Darchinyan in a rematch, but the latter is not willing to meet him at featherweight. He knocked out Darchinyan in 2007 for the IBF flyweight title.
Donaire, who is still open to a rematch with Rigondeaux for his revenge, is far from finished as a fighter considering that the loss to the Cuban was only his first in his last 31 fights in the last 12 years, a span that saw him win world titles in the light-flyweight, flyweight, bantamweight and super-bantamweight divisions.
Likewise, the former WBO/WBA flyweight champion Viloria dropped a 112-pound, split decision to Mexican challenger Juan Francisco Estrada in Macau last April. He is coming back although there has been no word yet who his next opponent will be and when and where he will return to the ring.
Our Filipino boxers will surely want to regain world-title glory and the road to redemption begins with their next fights before the year ends.
