Jerusalem recovers world boxing crown

MindanaoToday.com | Jerusalem recovers world boxing crown 

By: Uriel Quilinguing

Boxing world title drought for the Philippines ended on Sunday, March 31, when Filipino challenger Melvin Jerusalem dethroned defending Japanese champion Yudai Shigeoka via split decision in a 12-round World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight bout at the International Conference Hall in Nagoya, Japan.

Jerusalem becomes the only current world title holder from the Philippines after he was proclaimed as the new WBC minimumweight champion by referee Steve St. Germaine who went to the scoresheets. Judges Jae Bong Kim and Barry Linderman gave identical scores 114-112 in favor of the challenger while judge Malcolm Burner saw the fight 114-113 for the defending champion.

The 30-year Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon native capitalized on his right-hand straight power punches that sent the undefeated Shigeoka twice on the canvass, first on the third round and then on sixth, when all judges wrote 10-8 on their scoresheets, thus earned early points which the Japanese title defender could not surpass by dictating the tempo with three rounds left.

It was Shigeoka’s first mandatory title defense after winning the mini-flyweight (minimumweight) title on October 7, 2023 via unanimous decision over Thai grizzled fighter Panya Pradabsri who kept the crown against four other title chasers. Prior to his loss to Jerusalem, the hometown favorite won all eight fights, five by way of knockouts.

Jerusalem, who improved to 22 wins, 12 by way of knockouts, and three losses from 25 fights, won his WBO mini-flyweight championship title on January 6, 2023 over Masataka Taniguchi, incidentally also in Japan, via technical knockout on the second round. He however failed to keep the belt against an undefeated Puerto Rican Oscar Collazo on May 27, 2023, retiring after the end of the seventh round.

Former world boxing champions Marlos Tapales and Jerwin Ancajas and world title challenger Jonas Sultan tried to keep Philippine boxing in the global limelight but suffered losses against Japanese fighters in recent months.

Tapales lost his International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight titles against Japanese boxing superstar Naoya Inoue in Tokyo, last December.

Even WBO Asia Pacific champion Jake Amparo, who was one of the undercard fighters in Jerusalem-Shigeoka Main Event lost in a humiliating second-round knockout to the younger Shigeoka, Ginjiro, who has yet to loss a fight as a professional boxer. (MT)

 

 

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