Mayol halts Rubillar, retains OPBF crown

Rodel Mayol defeated Ernesto Rubillar Friday night to retain the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation mini-flyweight crown at the Fort’s NBC Tent.

Mayol suffered an accidental head butt in the seventh round on the right eyebrow that forced international referee Bruce MacTavish, upon the advise of the attending ring physician, to stop the fight.

With the cut so severe, MacTavish stopped the fight to prevent further damage. Going to the scorecards, Mayol was way ahead and was awarded the fight. Rubillar suffered the only knockdown of the fight in the first round.

The 12-round fight Edgardo "Boy" Cantada promoted was the main event of Then Live Match, a black-tie, by invitation only affair organized by the Springboard Foundation chairman John Milne and president Annette Helbig.

"We will telecast the fight today at 2 p.m. in the popular television boxing show Fistorama on RPN-9," Cantada said. "The other fights will also be shown on succeeding weekly episodes."

Special guests totalling 600 watched the fight after dinner hosted by Le Souffle. Concert queen Pops Fernandez entertained the guests while they were dining.

Major sponsors of the charity event for the benefit of Filipino children and their families were San Miguel Beer, Gillette, Ford, Jardine Schindler, Circulan Macroxam and Lufthansa Cargo.

The other backers were Smart Communications, Le Souffle, Cantada Sports Center, HMR Group of Companies, Lane Moving and Storage, Business Profiles Inc., MCA, New World Renaissance Hotel, Qantas, Scan Asia, IMG, Hope/Winston, NBC, DHL, Intera Dent, Zen Asia Inc., Spectrum Security Services, Flour, Addict, P.S. Print, Haagen Dazs, Carepak, Campbell Alexander, Illington Global Distribution, Golden Tokyo, Int’l Entertainment Agency, C.M de Ravenna (Asia) Inc., La Flor de Isabela, CreAsia Inc., and Starmaker.