Boxing boom in Bohol

Boxing is booming in Bohol and last Saturday’s fight extravaganza was a testament to how far the sport has gone in terms of nurturing future world champions and creating a sizable fan following. PMI (Philippine Maritime Institute) Bohol school administrator/PMI Boxing Promotions head Atty.-CPA Floriezyl Podot has been instrumental in fueling the surge and his highly-successful Komong Bol-anon series that started in 2021 just celebrated its 26th edition.

Fans came out in droves to witness Atty. Podot’s latest offering at the Bohol Wisdom School gym in Tagbilaran City last Saturday. The place was packed. Tickets were priced at P5,000 for floor seats with buffet dinner, P3,000 for other floor seats and P500. Bohol 1st district Rep. John (Baba) Yap and his wife City Mayor Jane were at ringside. Games and Amusements Board chairman Atty. Francisco Rivera was in attendance as was New Jersey-based IBF president Daryl Peoples. PMI Colleges president Atty. Angelica Cloma was also present.

Atty. Podot lined up four fights and brought in foreign officials. Renowned US referee Tony Weeks worked the main event featuring IBF No. 3 Regie Suganob and IBF No. 4 Sive Nontschinga of South Africa in an IBF junior flyweight title eliminator. Japanese referee Koji Tanaka took care of the fight between Leonard Pares and Andika (D’ Golden Boy) Fredikson Ha’e of Indonesia for the vacant IBF Pan Pacific flyweight crown and was a judge in three bouts. New Jersey judge Steve Weisfeld, whose resume lists four Manny Pacquiao bouts, and Thai Kriengsak Thonghong were assigned to four fights, including the tiff between Reymart Tagacanao and Chunlin Kuang of China for the vacant IBF Asia junior bantamweight belt and the match between Datu Adam and Indonesia’s Oky Akbar for the vacant IBF Asia junior featherweight diadem. Filipino officials filled in the rest of the assignments. Judge Edward Ligas was on the panel for Pores-Andika while referee Carlo Baluyut worked the Adam-Akbar fight and referee Don Arguelles, the Tagacanao-Chunlin battle.

It was a clean sweep for the four Filipino fighters and the fans were delirious. Adam, 23, survived a nasty cut over his right eye in the second round and knocked out Akbar in the seventh to raise his record to 8-0, with six KOs. Tagacanao, 23, faced a durable, machine-like Chunlin who never took a back step and scored a split 10-round decision. Pores took every round in dominating Andika until the Indonesian surrendered at the start of the fifth, complaining of vision difficulty in his right eye. Suganob, 29, avenged the only loss in his career by turning the lights out on Nontschinga, a former two-time IBF junior flyweight king. The South African decked Suganob with a right counter to the jaw late in the third frame but couldn’t withstand the pressure from “The Filipino Phenom” who ended it with a savage attack in the fifth. Nontschinga said he blacked out after taking a hard shot to the temple that followed a blast to his right eye.

Suganob will next face the winner of the Sept. 26 tussle between IBF champion Thanongsak Simsri of Thailand and Filipino challenger Mark Vicelles in Japan. Atty. Podot said he’ll bid to stage the showdown in an open-air, makeshift ring at the PMI Bohol campus in February. Before that, Atty. Podot will unravel the 27th edition of Komong Bol-anon featuring PMI rising star Joseph Sumabong, now WBC No. 4, WBA No. 7, IBF No. 10 and WBO No. 11 in the 105-pound division.