Monday, June 02, 2008 Z overwhelms Otieno By Edri K. Aznar Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BOXING fans in the Pacific Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Hotel and Casino on Saturday night never saw the knockout—or knockdown—they expected as Z “The Dream” Gorres and Nick “Kanyankole” Otieno’s 10-round battle went the distance.
Gorres (28-2-2, 15 KOs) got the unanimous decision over Otieno (15-2, 5 KOs) with all three judges scoring, 100-90 in favor of him.
The speedy Gorres stunned his opponent a couple of times but failed to follow up with more combos, letting his clearly out-matched foe to regain composure.
ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer believes that Gorres did a remarkable job in winning the fight and he has already mapped out Gorres’ next career move—either face the winner of the Dimitri Kirilov and Vic Darchinyan fight for the International Boxing Federation super flyweight title or fight for the World Boxing Organization Inter-Continental crown.
“Gorres did well. It was a good fight. Otieno came here to fight and he showed it. A lot of people wanted to see a knockout but Gorres is a different fighter he uses his technical skills and not power,” Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview.
On the other hand, former World Boxing Council flyweight titlist Malcolm “Eagle Eye” Tuñacao (22-2-3, 15 KO’s) had a successful comeback, defeating Tanzania Professional Boxing titleholder Rashid Ally (11-10-7, 2 KOs) by TKO in the first round.
Injury
Ally grimaced in pain and refused to continue because of an injury to his right elbow after getting hit from a powerful left hook by Tuñacao.
Even if Tuñacao was absent from the ring for almost a year, he still displayed impressive boxing skills with power punches and quick combinations.
Meanwhile, the young ALA talent Jason Pagara (14-1, 8 KOs) made history by becoming the youngest to ever hold a World Boxing Organization youth title at 16 years old.
He demolished his Indonesian opponent, Heri Andriyanto (11-4-1, 7 KOs), in the third round of their lightweight battle with a TKO victory after the Indonesian’s corner called it quits.
Pagara demonstrated his boxing prowess by sending the Indonesian to the canvas in the second round with a solid left hook to the jaw.
At the end of the match the WBO Asia-Pacific chairman Leon Panoncillo handed the WBO Youth lightweight strap to Pagara.
Panoncillo thinks that Pagara has advanced boxing skill for his age and has the capacity to be a world champion in the future.
“Pagara is ahead of all the youth in his weight division,” said Panoncillo. “He will be ranked next month in the top 15 of the world. I definitely think he has the talent to become a world champion,” he said.
In the supporting bouts, Jether Oliva still emained undefeated after defeating Jayson Rotoni of the Elorde Gym in, 77-75, 78-74 and 79-73, unanimous decision, while the wacky Jun “Flash” Intor had a majority draw with Ali Belonguel.
Juan Miguel Elorde, the grandson of the late legendary “Flash” Elorde, won against Racem Lacud via unimous decision in their debut match. Two judges had it 40-35, while the other judge saw it 39-36; Romeo Jackosalem mauled Elmer Colve in a fifth round TKO; Jerson Mancio fended of his Japanese enemy, Ratazu Matzui in a unanimous decision win.
