Banal dominates Indonesian in tuneup bout

AJ “Bazooka” Banal got past his tune-up fight with ease and is eager for the most important fight of his career – a world title shot three months from now.

The 23-year-old Cebuano scored a unanimous decision over unheralded Indonesian Ruben Manakane in an eight-round bout that would keep himself busy for his October world title clash with Thai Puanglang Sor Singyu. Banal and Sor Singyu, rated No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, are fighting for the vacant World Boxing Organization bantamweight crown.

All three judges gave all rounds to Banal and had identical, 80-70 scores.

“It was a shutout. Manakane was knocked down twice in the third round,” ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu of Banal’s fight last Saturday night at the Dumaguete City Quadrangle. “He did what he needed to do. The plan was for AJ not to go for the knockout as he needed rounds to prepare him for the world title fight this year. His last fight was a first-round knockout last March so he needed a few rounds.”

Banal improved to 28-1-1 with 20 knockouts, while Manakane fell to 7-8 with five knockouts.

The negotiation battle between ALA Promotions and Thai promotional outfit One Songchai is still ongoing and the world title fight could either be staged in the Philippines or in Thailand.

“We have not finalized everything yet but hopefully we should know the final decision before Friday next week. We have been studying each of our proposals very carefully as there are a lot of details and angles to look at,” said Aldeguer.

In the Cobra Tunay na Lakas Boxing event earlier that night, Joseph Von Miñoza (14-3, 6 KOs) destroyed RJ Anoos (7-4-1, 2 KOs) via an impressive sixth round knockout; and Melvin Gumban (10-0, 4 KOs) scored a sixth round technical knockout over fellow promising prospect Aroel Romasasa (9-2, 5 KOs).