Gasca falters in IBO championship bid

CEBU, Philippines- Cebuano super bantamweight contender Roli Gasca lost by unanimous decision to Thabo Sonjica of South Africa during their IBO title bout Saturday night (early Sunday morning in Manila) at the Emperor's Palace in Gauteng, South Africa.

Supersport.com has reported that the taller and bigger Sonjica, who earlier lost his belt by coming in 2.3kg (5.07 lbs) over the limit during Friday's weigh-in, used his height and reach advantage to beat Gasca. The scores were 116-109 on two cards and 117-109 on the third.

Gasca, according to Supersport, scored with telling blows in the opening rounds, knocked down the former champion in the 7th and scored a big left in the 8th and could have won the IBO belt if he was able to beat Sonjica. But size counted in the end as Gasca was battling to stay in the fight. Sonjica knocked Gasca down in the 11th after Gasca was deducted a point for hitting from behind.

Sonjica improved his record to 20-2 with 14 stoppages. Sonjica won the IBO belt in July last year when he stopped Silvester Lopez in the sixth round. In his first defence, on June 8 this year, he stopped SA bantamweight champion Toto Helebe in the first round.

Gasca dropped to 22-5-1 with 6 knockouts. Gasca won the OPBF super bantamweight title in 2011 by beating Hiromasa Ohashi of Japan. He scored a majority draw with highly ranked Akifumi Shimoda of Japan last year and in his last fight, he beat Yuta Horike of Japan last April 20. — Dong Secuya of  Philboxing.com (FREEMAN)