Sunday, July 06, 2008 Unassuming Domingo gets title shot By Edri K. Aznar Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FOR most boxers, a record with double digit losses isn’t much of a career and a chance for a title shot is won’t come. Unless that boxer is a Michael Domingo.
Even with a 35-14 win-loss record, ALA pugilist Domingo has a vibrant future ahead of him starting with a shot at a regional title, the vacant World Boxing Organization Oriental bantamweight title, against Chaiyong Sakkreerin on July 26 in the undercard of the World Boxing Association super flyweight title war between AJ Banal and Panamanian warrior Rafael Concepcion.
Michael Aldeguer, the President of ALA Promotions, broke the news to Sun.Star Cebu and said regional title shot for Domingo was approved just yesterday afternoon by the WBO.
Aledguer said he just sent a letter to WBO Asia-Pacific Chairman Leon Panoncillo Jr. early in the morning.
If Domingo, whom Aldeguer describes as someone who can deceive most foes because of his record, is successful in his regional title bout, he will be ranked in the WBO, the organization where Aldeguer plans to have him gun for a world title in the near future.
Based on the records at www.boxrec.com, Domingo suffered 12 of his losses before 2004, and since then has won 13 of his last 15 fights.
Pinoy
The current WBO bantamweight champion is the Gerry Peñalosa but Aldeguer has no intention for Domingo to a fellow countryman for a world title.
“The current champion is Gerry but we have no plans to fight him. We will wait until Gerry will either move to another division or retire,” Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview.
Aldeguer wants the 28-year old boxer to fight some named fighters in the bantamweight division like Ratanachai Sor Vorapin or former WBO bantamweight king Jhonny Gonzalez, who were both defeated by Peñalosa, to build up his career.
To further hone his skills, Aldeguer wants Domingo to be based and fight in the US.
“We will let him campaign in the US either in Las Vegas or Los Angeles. Hopefully Golden Boy can give him good fights there,” said Aldeguer.
The only setback for the Cebu-based fighter is that he will have a difficulty fighting renowned fighters because of his unimpressive and his reputation for spoiling up and rising fighters like Miguel “Mickey” Roman, who he defeated via unanimous decision last year in the Boxing World Cup in Arco Arena.
“It’s hard for him to get big fights there because title holders don’t want to fight him because of his record and reputation,” said Aldeguer.
The 22-year-old Roman was undefeated back then and had an impressive record of 22 wins with 16 KO’s.
After fighting Domingo, Roman’s career went south and he lost twice in his last five fights, tallying wins against fighters who only have 4, 10, and 7 wins.
