Saturday, March 10, 2007 Gabi to face Brazilian foe By Charles Raymond A. Maxey
"THE PRINCE" is stepping into the ring anew.
This time, Diosado Gabi, called "The Prince," will fight a Brazilian opponent in Giovanni Andrade as one of the undercards of the Marco Antonio Barrera-Juan
Manuel Marquez WBC super featherweight championship clash on March 17 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old Gabi, who hails from Barangay Lasang in Davao City, will take on Andrade in a super bantamweight fight.
This will be the first time Gabi is fighting in Las Vegas.
Andrade, 36, is the same fighter whom Filipino Rey "Boom-Boom" Bautista flattened in only four rounds during their match last year.
The Davao fighter will be entering the ring riding on a two-match win streak, all via first round knockouts.
His latest victim was Felipe Rivas of Mexico, whom Gabi stopped with savage body shots in October of last year.
Gabi, 28-3-1 with 20 KOs, also stopped Mauricio Pastrana of Colombia with body shots in August also of last year.
The Filipino pug has won 15 of his last 16 bouts, his only lost coming at the hands of IBF flyweight titlist Vic Darchinyan of Australia in March.
In that fight, Gabi started strong and had Darchinyan's numbers early on but got careless as the bout progressed. A wicked left to the jaw sent Gabi sprawling to the canvass in the eighth round.
Although he managed to beat the count, Gabi was clearly hurt and the referee stopped the fight.
Since that time Gabi is on a roll.
Gabi posted two huge victories and signed a five-fight contract with Oscar dela Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions with the hope of taking another shot at a world title.
A victory over Andrade will surely boost his stock, but Andrade is no pushover.
The Brazilian is a veteran boxer, having compiled a record of 53-10 with 44 KOs in his career. In his last outing, Andrade fashioned out a third round KO win over Sergio Gustavo Rodriguez in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
