WITH just six days before the fight, Christopher “Ping-Ping” Tepora is confident that his younger brother, Jhack Tepora, will make weight in time for his title defense on Sunday, Jan. 20.
“Yes, he’ll make weight. There’s still five days. He isn’t drained, he’s still eating,” Christopher told SunStar Cebu.
Jhack will be defending his interim World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight crown for the first time against former world champion Hugo Ruiz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“We’re doing well. We are still working on his weight,” said Christopher. “We trained at the Wild Card, now we’re training in Las Vegas.”
The 23-year-old Jhack is still 11 pounds overweight at 137 pounds, but Christopher is confident that he’ll make it by the weigh-in.
Jhack won the interim WBA crown with a ninth-round stoppage of Edivaldo Ortega on July 15 of last year in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
The 30-year-old Ruiz, in the meantime, won back-to-back fights last year after a long layoff. He knocked out Jesus Galicia and beat Dennis Contreras by unanimous decision.
Jhack is 22-0 with 17 knockouts, while Ruiz is 38-4 with 33 knockouts.
The main event features Pinoy boxing icon Manny Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) defending his WBA welterweight crown against Adrien Broner (33-3-1, 24 KOs) in the main event.
Three other Pinoy pugs are seeing action in the undercard.
Journeyman Rey Perez (24-10, 8 KOs) locks horns with Pacquiao sparring partner George Kambosos Jr. (15-0, 9 KOs).
Genisis Libranza (17-1, 10 KOs) takes on former world title contender Carlos Buitrago (30-4-1, 17 KOs). Jayar Inson (18-1, 12 KOs) locks horns with Jonathan Steele (8-2-1, 6 KOs). (EKA)