LAS VEGAS – For close to a year now, welterweight prospect Mark Jason Melligen has lived here, training with Britisher Tony Martin who is married to a Filipina and used to reside in Cebu.
During that span of time, Melligen went home only twice, the longer visit taking three weeks. It’s not that he doesn’t miss home. It’s just that Melligen realizes that to get ahead in boxing, he’s got to be prepared to sacrifice.
“I’m lucky that Mr. (Tony) Aldeguer takes care of me and his other boxers,” said Melligen. “He doesn’t even share in our purses and he pays for our travel, board and lodging in the US. Sometimes, he puts his fighters in a higher priority than even himself. That’s how he is.”
Melligen, 23, was sensational in blasting Mexican veteran Ernesto (Baby) Zepeda, 32, into submission at 2:40 of the fourth in the “Pinoy Power 3” undercard behind the main event featuring Nonito Donaire Jr. and Rafael Concepcion at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino here last Saturday.
The 5-7 southpaw from Bacolod improved his record to 16-1, with 12 KOs . His only loss was a seventh round stoppage to Yong Sung Kim in Seoul. Zepeda has now lost five of his last seven outings. Before facing Melligen, Zepeda dropped an eighth-round decision to Ricky Hattons’ brother Matthew.
“Melligen is on the rise,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum. “I’ve seen Zepeda go up against a lot of good fighters and I’m impressed by the way Melligen handled him. I foresee in the future Melligen will be a force to reckon with.”
Melligen, who has won his last 10 fights, said he wasn’t intimidated by Zepeda’s experience. He promised to bring him down with his vaunted three-punch combination of a left uppercut, right straight and left hook.
As it turned out, Melligen had no difficulty finding his target. A half-uppercut and half-hook brought Zepeda down to his knees in the fourth round and referee Joe Cortez called it a halt. The end came quickly that Melligen never had a chance to fire the combination he promised.
“I first came to the US in November 2008,” he related. “I’ve been going back and forth from the US to the Philippines. I stay for three, four months for a fight then go home for two to three weeks. The training in the US is good because I have more sparring. The sparring is better, too. I can learn a lot more about fighting here, too.”
A natural southpaw, Melligen is a two-time Southeast Asian Games silver medalist who lost in two finals to the Thai twins Manus and Manon Boonjamnong.
His Filipino trainer Edito Villamor flew in to work Melligen’s corner over a week ago.
“Mark has all the skills because of his amateur background,” said Villamor. “He has sparred with Floyd Mayweather and even Marcos Maidana who just knocked out Victor Ortiz for the interim WBA lightwelterweight title.”
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Cheering themselves hoarse at ringside for Donaire Jr. in his fight against Concepcion were his wife Rachel, her sister Nicole, her parents Gerry and Becky Marcial and her grandparents Dadong and Baby Marcial.
It was the first fight ever witnessed by the grandparents, now both retired in their 70s. Dadong was a former Philippine Airlines engineer while Baby was a multi-lingual accountant.
Also on hand to watch “Pinoy Power 2” were Dr. Allan Recto, Dr. Ed de la Vega and lawyer-to-be Jason Aniel – all popular contributors to Dong Secuya’s philboxing website.
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Three ladies were chosen to sing different national anthems before the Donaire-Concepcion fight for the interim WBA superflyweight crown. First was Marianna Estrada who did the honors for Panama. Then came Dessa who sang the Philippine national anthem. Finally, it was Chelsea Emata for the Star Spangled Banner.
The rumor was Emata, supposedly a niece of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, was originally picked to sing the Philippine national anthem but was bumped off by Dessa. Fans rated Emata as the best singer of the three with Dessa the worst. In 2005, Dessa was tapped to sing the anthem at the “Double Trouble” boxing card with Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In that show, Pacquiao met Hector Velazquez and Morales battled Zahir Raheem.
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With Donaire holding the interim WBA superflyweight title, it’s not certain if he’ll ever meet “super” world champion Vic Darchinyan in a rematch. That’s because in the WBA, there is a “super” world champion or a fighter who is the unified titlist and a “regular” world champion who isn’t.
Darchinyan once held the WBC, WBA and IBF superflyweight titles. When he unified the 115-pound championships, Darchinyan was elevated to the “super” category by the WBA which then ordered a series of eliminators to crown the new “regular” titleholder. Darchinyan later gave up his IBF title to take on (and lost to) IBF bantamweight champion Joseph Abgeko last July.