FORMER Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) super-bantamweight champion Pete Apolinar returns to Japan in search of his first win in the “Land of the Rising Sun”.
Apolinar is scheduled for an eight-round bout against undefeated Japanese prospect Kaishu Harada today, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
“We will try to outpunch him (Harada) so that we will win. We trained well for this fight,” Prime Fight Gym trainer Fernando Ocon told SunStar Cebu. “He’s tall and has that amateur boxing style of fighting.”
The 29-year-old Apolinar, a former sparring partner of Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue, has already fought in Japan three times but is unfortunately still winless there.
He first fought in Japan in 2022 to defend his OPBF belt but lost to Yoshiki Takei, who would go on to become a future world champion, by a fifth-round technical knockout. Apolinar then returned a few months later and lost to Hayato Tsutsumi by unanimous decision.
Apolinar fought in Japan for the third time early this year but lost to Matcha Nakagawa by unanimous decision.
On the other hand, the 24-year-old Harada just turned pro last year. However, he has demonstrated his ability to compete against more experienced opponents, defeating the likes of Taweechai Juntarasuk, Sukpraserd Ponpitak, Claudevan Sese, and Kohei Hammamoto. / EKA