JERALD Into bowed out of the Riyadh Season World Boxing Council (WBC) Boxing Grand Prix super-lightweight tournament after losing to undefeated Kazakh Sanatali Toltayev last Friday night, June 20, 2025, at the Global Theater in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Into utilized his long reach to control the fight by throwing crisps jabs on Toltayev’s head and landing two-punch combinations. But out of nowhere, Toltayev feinted a right straight and then followed it up with a solid left hook that landed flush on Into’s jaw and dropped him to the canvas near the end of the opening round.
Into didn’t show any signs of slowing down after the knockdown and continued to throw his jabs. But Toltayev used his speed and quickness to outbox Into.
Into got a huge break in the fourth round after Totalyev was deducted a point for hitting the back of the head.
After the fourth round, Into still had a lot of catching up to do and was behind in two of the three judges’ scorecards -- 38-37, 39-35 and 37-37 -- in WBC’s open scoring system.
Sensing the urgency of being behind in two scorecards, Into landed some solid shots in the next two rounds and did his best to try and knock out Toltayev. However, the 25-year-old Kazakh was very elusive and threw some quick combinations that was enough to sway the judges’ scores his way.
All three judges saw Toltayev ahead with scores of 58-54, 57-55 and 57-55.
Into suffered his first career defeat and dropped to 12-1 with nine knockouts, while Toltayev stayed unbeated at 4-0 with two knockouts.
After Into’s loss, there are no Filipino fighters left in the WBC Grand Prix. Bryx Piala and Crisalito Beltran, the other two Pinoys in the Grand Prix, were eliminated opening round last April. / EKA