CERMENO TKOS THISA IN 3RD ROUND TO RETAIN WBA WORLD SUPER BANTAM TITLE

WINNER ANEW. Xiao Jun Qui (2nd from left) bounced back with a 3rd round TKO win against Filipino Robert Udtohan (3rd from left) last Sept. 30. Others in photo are Udtohan’s trainers Joven Jorda (extreme right) and Roldan Bullong (extreme left). (Photo by BRICO SANTIG)

By LITO DELOS REYES

NEHOMAR Cermeno of Panama landed a solid punch to the head of challenger Anurak Thisa of Thailand to retain his WBA World super bantamweight title on Friday night at the Wenzhou Gymnasium in Wenzhou, China.

Referee Bruch McTavish stopped the fight by a knockout in 2:19 of the third round. It was the first title-defense of the 36-year old Cermeno, who won the vacant title via a 12^th round technical knockout against Xia Jun Qiu last June 24 at the Capital gym in Beijing.

Xiao Jun Qui, on the other hand, bounced back also last Friday in the undercard by knocking out Filipino Robert Udtohan in 1:39 of the 3^rd round.

Xiao used his jabs in hitting Udtohan’s face in the opening round. But Udtohan was able to land a solid body shot in the 2^nd round.

Udtohan, who was accompanied by his manager Brico Santig and assistant trainer Roldan Bullong but was joined at the corner by chief trainer Joven Jorda, was the first to shake Xiao with a jab on the face in the 3rd round.

But Xiao recovered immediately to also knocked down Udtohan with his left-right combinations. Jorda immediately climbed up the ring to stop the fight.

“Maraming natanggap na suntok at bumagsak kaya’t inayaw ko na baka mapurohan pa siya,” (He got too many punches at was downed. That’s why I already stopped the fight to prevent further damage) said Jorda.

Xiao improved his record to 20 wins, 3 losses and 10 knockouts while Udtohan fell to 23 wins, 2 losses, 3 draws and 15 knockouts.

In the other fight, super featherweight Can Xu won by a unanimous decision against Ramiro Blanco to retain his WBA International super featherweight title for the second time around.

The other bouts saw heavyweight Zhilei Zhang remained undefeated with a TKO win against Gogita Gorgiladze while light heavyweight Fanlong Meng won by a majority draw against Zura Mekereshvili.

Referee Bruce McTavish (2nd from right) raising the hand of Nehomar Cemeno of Panama after retaining his WBA World featherweight title via a 3rd round knockout against Anurak Thisa of Thailand last Sept. 30 in China. (Photo by BRICO SANTIG)