Thursday, July 24, 2008 Concepcion vs. Banal winner to fight Japanese
If AJ “Bazooka” Banal succeeds in his fight with Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion for the World Boxing Association interim super flyweight title on July 26 at the Cebu Coliseum, he would be in for another fight for the regular WBA title against either Nobou Nashiro or Kohei Kono.
Nashiro and Kono, the no.1 and no.2 contenders in the WBA super flyweight category, was originally asked by WBA president Gilberto Mendoza to battle for the WBA super flyweight crown after it was vacated by Alexander Muńoz.
However, their handler Akihiko Honda of Teiken Boxing Promotions couldn’t find a date for the fight.
WBA then went to No. 3 rated Banal, who quickly agreed to battle for the vacated title, and then to no. 6 rated Rafael Concepcion because the no. 4 and 5 contenders were unavailable.
But recently, the leading contenders, Nashiro and Kono, unexpectedly came up with a match date, on Sept. 15 in Japan, after all was set for the title fight of Banal and Concepcion.
With this turn of events the WBA resolved the issue and changed the Banal and Concepcion clash for the interim title, which is still a world title, and Nashiro and Kono’s war would be for the regular WBA title because they are the rightful candidates to battle for the vacant title.
The WBA said in their resolution that the winner of the Banal-Concepcion bout would be mandated to challenge the victor of the Nashiro-Kono match up before Dec 15 to determine the absolute WBA super flyweight champion.
Commenting on the unforeseen events that had happened in the super flyweight category, the famed matchmaker said:
“Never in history that the smaller divisions has made this much noise in the world,” said Lewkowicz. (EKA)
