MANILA, Philippines — Filipino boxer and former three-division world champion John Riel Casimero has been slapped with a one-year ban by the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) for being overweight in his latest fight.
The 35-year-old Casimero came in a kilogram over the limit in his super-bantamweight bout against Saul Sanchez in Yokohama, Japan on Sunday.
Related Stories
There, he knocked out the American Sanchez in the first round.
The Filipino slugger is part of the list of banned boxers posted by JBC on its website.
“John Riel Casimero [of the] Philippines, banned for one year due to contract default due to [being] overweight,” the website’s list read in Japanese, as translated by Google.
“Quadro Alas” knocked Sanchez down twice in the first round as he had a dominating return to the ring.
The referee put a stop to the contest with 20 seconds remaining in the round.
The ban is a big blow for Casimero, who will turn 36 in February next year, as Japan is a major boxing market known to reward Filipino fighters handsomely.
Casimero (34-4-1, with 23 KOs) has held titles in the junior flyweight, flyweight and bantamweight divisions.