Instead of restart, melindo gets rude reminder to retire

MILAN Melindo’s slump inside the ring continues as he suffered his third straight career loss after a sixth round technical knockout by Japanese prospect Junto Nakatani on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, in Tokyo, Japan.

The 21-year-old Nakatani was very precise with his punches and consistently landed his punches from his long reach on a shorter Melindo.

Nakatani landed a series of unanswered punches on Melindo, which forced referee Yuji Fukuchi to stop it in the 2:02 mark. Melindo’s trainer, Edito Villamor, found it a little bit premature but he respected Fukuchi’s decision to stop the fight.

“Milan said that he really didn’t get hurt,” Villamor told SunStar Cebu. “I think the referee stopped because Milan wasn’t countering Nakatani’s punches. I think the referee stopped it for safety purposes. I think it was the right call.”

Melindo dropped his third straight loss, all in Japan. He also suffered his second straight stoppage defeat.

Melindo came into this fight coming off a year of layoff and back-to-back losses to Ryoichi Taguchi and Ken Shiro.

Though Melindo lost, Villamor felt that he had a better performance compared to his last fight.

“He looked better compared to his fight against Ken Shiro,” he said.

Melindo dropped 37-5 with 13 knockouts, while Nakatani remained unbeaten and improved to 20-0 with 15 knockouts.

At 31 years old, Melindo still seems to have a lot in his tank. However, his career in boxing depends solely on his decision.

“We will have a meeting with Milan and see what his plans for his career are,” said Villamor. “But for now, he needs to rest.” (EKA)

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