The other main event

WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria will defend his crown against Mexican nemesis Omar Niño Romero in the stellar attraction at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City this Sunday morning but what’s also fueling interest in the big fight card is the other main event featuring former world champions Rodel Mayol and Julio Cesar Miranda.

The backroom talk is the Mayol-Miranda winner will take on the Viloria-Romero survivor in a blockbuster showdown before the year ends. So expect Mayol, 30, and Miranda, 31, to go all out in their battle to keep alive their hopes for another world title.

Mayol failed in four attempts to win a world crown before halting Mexico’s Edgar Sosa in the second round to wrest the WBC lightflyweight diadem in Chiapas three years ago. He was dethroned by Romero in his second title defense in Queretaro in 2010. Since the loss to Romero, Mayol has won four in a row, twice in the US. He would’ve faced WBA flyweight king Hernan (Tyson) Marquez in Sonora last March 25 but backed out the day before when Mexican promoters lost control of proceedings at the weigh-in. Marquez initially scaled two pounds over the limit then was declared on the button under dubious circumstances. Mayol risked a ban by putting his foot down to protest the shenanigan.

Mayol was in training with Manny Pacquiao in Baguio City when the offer came to meet Miranda whom Viloria beat for the WBO belt in Honolulu last year. After back-and-forth negotiations, Mayol’s camp represented by Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz agreed to the deal. A win over Miranda will keep Mayol on course for a title shot.

Miranda is no pushover. His 78 percent KO rate is slightly higher than Mayol’s 73 percent. As both fighters are knockout artists, the expectation is their 10-round bout won’t go the distance. One of them is bound to fall. Two of Miranda’s stoppage victims were Filipinos Richie Mepranum (a Mayol stablemate) and Arden Diale. Since bowing to Viloria, Miranda has bounced back to beat Luis Carlos Leon by knockout and veteran Cecilio Santos on points. His record is 37-6-1, with 29 KOs compared to Mayol’s 30-5-2, with 22 KOs.

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Is WBC lightflyweight champion Kompayak Porpramook’s conscience bothering him? The Thai was recently quoted in media as confessing he can’t die without clearing the air over his controversial majority technical decision over Filipino challenger Jonathan Taconing in Buriram last May 3. In the fifth round, Kompayak was on the verge of collapsing under fire when Korean referee Jae Bong Kim intervened to order a point deduction on Taconing for an accidental headbutt that happened in the previous stanza. The highly irregular interruption saved Kompayak from a knockdown or even a knockout.

Worse, before the start of the sixth, the Thai ringside physician examined a small cut over Kompayak’s left eye and raised a red card, indicating the champion was unfit to continue. Kim quickly declared a halt to the bout. It went to the scorecards and Kompayak came out the winner by a majority decision.

At the end of four rounds, the scores of the three judges were publicly announced. Under WBC open-scoring rules, the scores are announced at the end of the fourth and eighth rounds. Taconing’s manager Johnny Elorde said Kim bailed out Kompayak since he knew the champion was ahead on points but looked in a daze. Kompayak was badly battered in the fifth and appeared groggy. One of the judges Zanashir Taznas of Mongolia saw it 47-all. Another judge Takeaki Kanaya of Japan shamelessly gave Kompayak every round, 50-45, when it was clear as day that Taconing dominated at least the fifth.

After the fight, Elorde contacted WBC president Jose Sulaiman to protest the outcome and asked for an immediate rematch. Sulaiman replied, assuring a fair decision after reviewing the tape of the fight. A Thai newspaper reported that Kompayak was bothered by the dispute and would agree to a rematch. Elorde said statistics showed that Taconing landed 159 of 411 punches thrown compared to Kompayak’s 100 of 184 – a discrepancy that put to doubt the integrity of the judges’ scorecards.

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Bolo puncher Ceferino Garcia reigned as world middleweight champion in 1939-40 but no Filipino has since emerged to become even a contender in the 160-pound division – until now. Promoter Gabriel (Bebot) Elorde Jr. said Philippine lightmiddleweight titlist Marlon Alta, 22, will try to follow in Garcia’s footsteps by engaging Samoa’s Afakasi Pele Faumuina in a 10-round tussle for the vacant WBC Youth Intercontinental middleweight crown at the Flash Grand Ballroom in the Elorde Sports Center on Sucat this Saturday.

Alta, 22, has won his last five outings, four by KO, while Faumuina is unbeaten in his last nine bouts. Alta has ballooned from 130 pounds in 2007 and is now a legitimate middleweight. His record is 11-2, with 8 KOs, compared to the Samoan’s mark of 8-1-1, with one KO. Alta’s two losses were six-round decisions to William George and Dan Nazareno.

“The first Filipino boxer to fight as a middleweight was Ceferino Garcia and that was before World War II,” said Elorde. “This Saturday, we will introduce only the second Filipino middleweight and like Manny Pacquiao, he’s from General Santos City.”