Suico battles ex-IBF champ in LA today

OPBF super featherweight champion Randy "Kumong Bato" Suico will try to prove he has what it takes to become a world champion when the Cebuano hard-puncher battles ex-IBF lightweight titlist Javier Jauregui of Mexico today in the main event of a boxing show by Golden Boy Promotions at the USC Lyon Center in Los Angeles.

Ranged against a former world champion, the 26-year-old Suico is in for a significant bout that would either define his career or force him to kiss his world championship ambition goodbye.

Noted Japanese boxingman Joe Koizumi, who handles Suico's career, said unlike other protagonists who avoid facing each other before the fight, Suico and Jauregui were cordial to each other as they even jogged side-by-side in an athletic club at the hotel where the two fighters were billeted. Koizumi said since it was foggy and cold outside, Suico and Jauregui decided to jog inside the hotel and the two started their routine almost at the same time.

"It seemed funny the Mexican veteran and the Filipino prospect were sweating together to reduce the weight as they jogged side-by-side on the running machines," said Koizumi.

"They didn't talk each other since there was a language barrier between them. Suico couldn't understand Spanish and neither Jauregui Cebuano (a Filipino dialect)," added Koizumi.

Although Suico and Jauregui were very corteous to each other, Koizumi anticipates a "furious give-and-take affair on the fight night as neither will pull punches just like the Morales-Pacquiao battle," The WBC ranked No.4 130-pounder Suico sports an impressive 23-1 win-loss record with 20KOs.

He absorbed his first and only loss so far at the hand of South African Mzonke Fana via split decision in their official WBC elimination bout in May last year in South Africa. This will only be the second time that he will strut his stuff in the US.

The first was last September 13, 2002 at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas where the Mandaue City-native punisher stopped Mexican Juan Carlos Garcia in the fourth round.

On the other hand, Jauregui parades a 49-12-1 win-loss-draw ledger packed with 32 stoppages in his 17-year pro career. Jauregui won the vacant IBF lightweight crown after stopping American Leavander Johnson in the 11th round on November 22, 2003 at the Olympic Auditorium in LA but lost to it to Julio Diaz by majority decision in March of the following year.

Curiously, Johnson is the same boxer who passed away yesterday because of the injuries he sustained during his brutal title defense against Jesus Chavez last Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.