JOHNRIEL Casimero got what he wanted as he avenged his controversial loss to Amnat Ruenroeng with a fourth-round knockout last Wednesday night at the Diamond Stadium in Beijing, China.
Casimero, a former boxer of Omega Boxing Gym in Cebu, won the IBF flyweight championship and took a sweet revenge after knocking out Ruenroeng in the fourth round with a left hook to the body with less than a minute left.
The 26-year-old Casimero (22-3, 14 KO) of Ormoc City, Philippines lost to Ruenroeng (17-1, 5 KO) of Chonburi, Thailand in a controversial decision in their first meeting in Thailand in June last year. Casimero did not fight in the 11 months since then to preserve his mandatory challenger status.
The former IBF junior flyweight champion’s wait for the rematch was all worth it as he foiled Ruenroeng’s sixth title defense and to hand the latter his first defeat.
Ruenroeng dictated the pace in the first round with his counter-punching before Casimero started connecting punches to the head and body in the second round.
In the fourth, Casimero landed a punch to the chin that rocked the former unbeaten Ruenroeng before finishing him off with a body punch that ended the fight.
Casimero rejoiced his win in a rematch where he was behind by the scorecards of two of the three judges, 30-27, while the third judge had Ruenroeng ahead 29-28.
In the rematch, the IBF selected well-known Las Vegas-based referee Tony Weeks, who warned the 36-year-old Ruenroeng about holding and rough-housing.
With the win, Casimero is now the third world champion from the Philippines. The others are WBO junior featherweight champion Nonito Donaire Jr and WBO junior flyweight Donnie Nietes.