UP-AND-COMER Michael Casama picked himself up the canvas and scored an eighth-round stoppage of journeyman Ryan Rey Ponteras on March 9 in Norala, South Cotabato.

The 22-year-old Casama overwhelmed Ponteras in the early round and rocked him a couple of times with some vicious shots.

Ponteras, however, landed a body shot that dropped Casama to the canvas in the fifth round.

Casama showed a ton of heart, stood up and carried on with the fight.

In the eighth round, Casama dropped Ponteras with a right straight. Ponteras went right back up but was swarmed by Casama with a series of one-two combinations that forced the referee to stop the fight.

Casama moved up to 9-1 with nine knockouts, while Ponteras dropped to 23-19-3 with 12 knockouts.

Former interim World Boxing Association (WBA) light flyweight titleholder Randy Petalcorin had an impressive comeback with a lopsided unanimous decision over Jayar Diama in the main supporting bout.

The 31-year-old Petalcorin totally dominated the fight and got the nod of all three judges with identical scores of 60-54.

Petalcorin improved 32-4-1 with 23 knockouts, while Diama fell to 7-21-7 with three knockouts.

Petalcorin came off a three-year and two-month layoff from boxing after a fourth-round technical knockout defeat at the hands of Kenshiro Teraji in a World Boxing Council (WBC) light flyweight title fight on Dec. 23, 2019.

In the undercard, veteran three-time world title challenger Richie Mepranum (37-9-1, 12 KOs) returned to the winning column with a second round stoppage of former youth world champion Dexter Alimento (13-11, 9 KOs), 22-year-old prospect Joshua Belcina (3-1, 2 KOs) beat Jerry Tabago (3-11-1) by unanimous decision, Jimler Cubay (4-0, 4 KOs) made quick work of battle-scarred veteran Marzon Cabilla (18-23-1, 6 KOs) with an opening-round technical knockout and Gabriel Santisima (1-0) had a successful pro debut with a convincing unanimous decision victory over experienced Rocky Sardido (8-30-5, 3 KOs).