Jandaeng dominates De la Cruz

CEBU - Former three-time world title challenger Terdsak Jandaeng of Thailand knocked down Joel de la Cruz of Wakee Salud Stable two times on the way to a lopsided unanimous decision victory over 12 heats for the WBO Oriental super featherweight championship yesterday in the main event of the "Daytime Boxing 2:Thai Invasion" at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex.

Jandaeng landed solid combinations capped with an energy-sapping left shot to the belly that sent De la Cruz sprawling on the canvass late in round two. The Thai visitor sneaked in another beautiful big left hand to the body that again sent De la Cruz down at the seat of his pants midway in round three.

From there onwards, there was already no doubt as to who would emerge the victor in the one sided-battle.

De la Cruz's bright moment was only in round seven when Jandaeng was deducted a point by referee Tony Pesons for hitting below the belt.

As a sign of confidence, Jandaeng kept on lowering his guard, as if challenging De la Cruz to charge in and show his stuff. But De la Cruz failed to deliver as he was completely outfoxed by the veteran Thai warrior in all facets of the match.

When the dust settled, the two judges penned it 117-108 and 115-110, while the other judge may have seen a different fight or just simply myopic as he scored the bout only at 114-112 for Jandaeng, who was clearly the dominant fighter even you watched the fight from a distance using a miscroscope.

Nevertheless, Jandaeng improved his record to 32-3-1 spiked with 21KOs. De la Cruz, who still has to work on a lot of things, fell to 10-5-1 (4KOs).

In the supporting bouts of the slambang card co-presented by international promoter Sammy "Don King" Gello-ani of SSG Sports Promotions and INTV-CCTN Channel 47, Rolando Magbanua of North Cotabato stopped Thai Thiti Sithkosol at 2:21 in round three, while Federico Catubay of Sibugay, Zamboanga City bombed out Sirichai Kokietgym at 1:36 of round eight.

The rest of the bouts saw Marvin Sonsona scoring a fifth round TKO win over Richard Picardial, Eric Canoy beating Abner Llanasa by unanimous decision, Rey Labao eking out a split verdict over Leonardo Doronio, Rolando Magallano prevailing over Sebusa Gonzalo by unanimous decision, and Jerry Pahal coming up with a first round demolition of Romano Gelig in the shortest fight of the day. -FREEMAN NEWS