ABDUGOFUROV RETAINS WBC TITLE

Sharma Devaiah

Uzbekistan’s Azizbek Abdugofurov proved his resiliency in a grueling twelve round battle to deny China’s Wuzhati Nuerlang a third title for the World Boxing Council Silver Super Middleweight bout at the World Boxing Convention held at Pasay City, Philippines on November 18.

Dubbed as Triple A, Azizbek’s body punches sent the Chinese contender rope side as the latter tried to counter with his one-two combos to no avail. With its open format scoring, all three judges saw the fight lopsided in favor of the Uzbek earning him his 12th straight win and no losses while handing Nuerlang his 2nd loss yet.

In the meantime, Filipino pride Jonathan Almacen made splash as he outscored Chinese Xiang Li making his 5th win a World Boxing Council Asian Boxing Council Silver Light Flyweight title. After losing to fellow Filipino Andales in September of this year for the vacant Luzon Professional Boxing Association (LuzProBA) Minimumweight title, Almacen’s barrage of punches stood throughout an 8-round action packed bout.

In the distaff side, Thailand’s Phanaluk Kongsang clinched her second title as she proved her supremacy and hand India’s Urvashi Singh her first loss for the WBC Asian Boxing Council Female Bantamweight title. Kongsang made her first title in February of this year in Thailand beating up Tassana Paladsrichuay for the Thai Female Super Flyweight title.

Meanwhile, the bout for the vacant World Boxing Council Asian Boxing Council Continental Female Flyweight Title between Filipinos Carleans Rivas and Gretel De Paz ended up in a split draw.

In the night’s lone professional Muay Thai bout, Thai’s 16-year old warrior Danai Wasan saw victory via a doctor’s stoppage for the WBC Asia Muay Thai Flyweight bout in the 5th round against Filipino Jayson Cruz Vedana as the latter’s cuts were declared reasons to stop fight.

The WBC Boxing event highlighted the WBC 3rd Women’s Convention and Asian Summit in Manila, Philippines.

Promoter Brico Santig said in an interview he scouted for boxers with good standing and good record to be able to come up with a good match and good show as four WBC Boxing titles and 1 WBC Muay Thai title were on the line.