Pitpitunge loses PXC bantam belt to Japanese challenger

MANILA, Philippines – Crisanto Pitpitunge lost the ground-and-pound game but tried to salvage victory by going for a last gasp knockout win in the fifth and final round and ended falling short against tough Japanese Michinori Tanaka to lose his bantamweight title in the Pacific X-Treme Combat 37 at the Ynares Arena in Pasig City Saturday night.

Tanaka, who has trained for 20 days with former Ultimate Fighting Championship titlist Urijah Faber in the United States, neutralized Pitpitunge's superb striking game with his world class grappling and wrestling skills almost all throughout the five-round bout.

The 22-year-old Japanese found himself under the Baguio City-based 26-year-old Team Lakay standout in the dying seconds of the match but the former survived the onslaught, weathered the threat and ended up with a unanimous decision victory after all three judges scored it 48-46.

So relieved and emotional was Tanaka after escaping what could have been a loss that he couldn't hide his tears after the fight.

"It's unbelievable," said Tanaka through an interpreter. "My opponent (Pitpitunge) was really tough and strong but I knew I will be undefeated after this fight."

And Tanaka did just that as he remained unscathed in eight straight fights in the mixed martial arts cage while sending Pitpitunge, who had to take a year-long layoff to train as a policeman, to his second loss against five wins including four straight at this Guam-based fight outfit.

"He (Tanaka) was really strong but at least I learned from this match and I will have a chance to correct in the future," said Pitpitunge.

The main bouts of the evening were shown last night at AKTV on IBC 13, a sports arm of Sports TV5.

Korean Jang Yong Kim finished off Hawaiian Nate Thorell with a first round submission via kimura to secure a featherweight title shot perhaps against either unbeaten Fil-Am Mark Streigl or Japanese Takumi Nakayama, who also came out with an equally impressive first round win at the expense of Johnny Pecyna.

Striegl was originally scheduled to face  Japanese Shooto champion Yusuke Yachi at PXC 37 but hurt his shoulder in training, forcing PXC organizers to move his fight when it returns to Manila this August.

There, Streigl will probably face Nakayama with the winner battling Jang for the featherweight championship late this year.

In the other results, Ernesto Montilla knocked out countryman Jerome Wanawan; Rolando Dy, son of former world boxing champ Rolando Navarrette, submitted Alex Montalban; Guam's Trevin Jones defeated Troy Bantiag via unanimous decision; Reno Remigio won over Hong Seung Chan; and Shafiq Samad prevailed over Wesley Machado.