Laurente KOs Pangaribuan, Elorde brothers triumph

MANILA, Philippines - Veteran Dennis Laurente was in top form Friday night, knocking out overweight Indonesian Elly Pangaribuan in the second round to handily retain his WBC Asian Boxing Council junior middleweight crown at the Elorde Grand Ballroom in Sucat, Parañaque.

In an overpowering performance that belied his 37 years, Laurente displayed speed and power  in downing Pangaribuan  with a crunching left-right combination to abruptly end the fight with merely a second left in the round.

“Ayoko masabi na nanalo ako dahil sa technicality. Gusto ko mapatunayan na kaya kong matalo siya sa loob ng ring,” said the Palonpon, Leyte pride, who fought a foe two pounds over the 154-pound weight limit but was still allowed to box.

Laurente would have kept his title regardless of the outcome of the bout.

“Mayroon pa tayong ibubuga,” added Laurente after the abbreviated bout that raised his record to 48 wins against five losses and three draws in the headliner of the card promoted by Johnny Elorde Management Intl. and Rotary Club Manila 101.

The loss was Pangaribuan’s eighth in 35  bouts.

Laurente’s victory closed out a triple kill by Filipino boxers over foreign opponents, with siblings Juan Martin and Juan Miguel Elorde, grandsons of the late boxing great Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, posting contrasting wins.  

The reigning World Boxing Organization Asia Pacific 133-pound champion, Juan Martin suffered an accidental head-butt from Indon rival Juniston Simbolon, forcing referee Sylvester Abainza to stop fight in 2:56 of the sixth round.

Elorde, who knocked down Simbolon with crackling right in the second round, won by technical unanimous decision after leading way ahead in all the scorecards of the referees: 60-52, 60-52 and 59-53. He picked up his 16th win against one loss and one draw.

Younger brother Juan Miguel asserted his ring superiority over Paulos Baransano, stopping the diminutive pug from Papua New Guinea in 2:18 of the fifth round with vicious right to the breadbasket en route to his 16th win against one draw.

Keenly watching the Elorde brothers in action at ringside was their 86-year-old grandmother Laura, Flash Elorde’s widow and the matriarch of the boxing clan.  

Promoter-manager Johnny Elorde said Laurente is being lined up for a title shot tentatively in October in Japan at newly crowned Japananese Orient Pacific junior middleweight champ Koji Numata, who took the title with a 10th-round technical knockout of compatriot Takehiro Shimokawara last Monday.