Ito of Japan defends OPBF superfeather title vs. Filipino Ernie Sanchez

By ROIE PURISIMA

Filipino Ernie Sanchez had to two rounds of skip rope to shed excess pounds before making the weight-limit of 130 pounds during the weigh-in for the Orient Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) superfeatherweight at the Japan Boxing Commission office in Tokyo yesterday (Wednesday).

He looked alright though and said he is ready to wrest the title from defending Japanese champion Masayuki Ito when they meet on the ring in a 12-round title bout on Thursday night at the Korakuen Hall.

“Matagal kong pinaghandaan ito. Bigay todo na ito,” said the pride of General Santos City. “Handan na ang katawan and mind ko handa na rin.”

Ito had no problem making the weight and got it on this first try on the scale.

Sanchez is given another golden opportunity numerous failures. He trained and failed in his bid for the Philippine Boxing Federation and WBO Asia Pacific superfeatherweight titles, WBC silver superbantamweight, WBC world youth superbantamweight and WBC International Silver superlightweight crown.

The closest he could get to an international title was when he drew with fellow Filipino Randy Megrino in the battle for the WBC world youth superfeatherweight in 2014, thus the crown remained vacant.

He had only two fights last year.

After hurdling South Korean Jii Hoon Cha via a spectacular knockout win in September, he suffered a TKO loss to undefeated Mexican Oscar Valdez in Tuczon, Arizona three months later.

The 24 year-old Sanchez is seeing action for the first time in Japan. The upside is that he has been to different countries and fought some of the best in the world.

He has fought in Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Russia and America to compile a career record of 15 wins (6 KO), 7 losses and a draw.

He will be up against a champion who has fought in his entire career at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Ito won the crown in October last year following a TKO win over Dai Iwa also at Korakuen Hall.

That opportunity came after a close majority decision loss to Rikki Naito for the Japanese featherweight title fight few months ago also at the same venue.

It was his first and only loss against 18 career wins, 8 of them coming by knockout, and a draw.

Ito was successful in his first defense of the title at the expense of compatriot Shingo Eto with a unanimous decision win last December in a fight also held at Korakuen Hall.

Sanchez is the third Filipino opponent for Ito. After beating Jeffrey Sermona, Ito defeated Ryan Arienza for the vacant World WBC Youth Lightweight Championship which he later relinquished for one reason or another.