Milan ready to unify titles

Japanese High On The Agenda

MANILA, Philippines -  Newly-crowned IBF lightflyweight champion Milan Melindo is open for a unification showdown with any or all of the three Japanese titleholders recognized by other governing bodies and the danger of fighting on hostile grounds doesn’t intimidate the man who used to be called El Metodico but now answers to El Matador.

Melindo, 29, said recently he’s willing to go back to Japan and fight WBC ruler Ken Shiro or WBA king Ryoichi Taguchi or WBO titlist Kosei Tanaka to unify the 108-pound championship. It was in Tokyo where Melindo stopped Akira Yaegashi in the first round to wrest the IBF crown last month. 

Tokyo has a special place in Melindo’s heart not only because it’s where he finally won a world title but also because it’s where his Filipina girlfriend Miki has lived for 10 years, working as a nurse in a hospital. Melindo and Miki found each other on Facebook seven years ago and they’ve since nurtured a long distance relationship. 

After Melindo won the IBF crown, he asked permission from ALA Boxing president Michael Aldeguer to stay an extra day in Tokyo. “It was my first visit to Tokyo and Miki took me around Shibuya, Shinjuku and other places,” said Melindo. “Miki’s very prayerful. She was in the stadium for my fight and told me she was very nervous because everyone around her was cheering for Akira.  So far, we have no plans of getting married. I want to be more successful before proposing.”

Japan’s domination of the lightflyweight division is something Melindo plans to end. Shiro, 25, won the WBC title on a majority decision over Mexico’s Ganigan Lopez in Tokyo last month and has a 10-0 record, with 5 KOs. Taguchi, 30, has held the WBA crown since 2014 with five successful defenses.  His record is 25-2-2, with 11 KOs. Tanaka, 21, stopped Mexico’s Moises Fuentes for the vacant WBO title in Gifu last December and has since repulsed Puerto Rican challenger Angel Acosta in Nagoya to raise his record to 9-0, with 5 KOs.

Melindo said his win over Yaegashi was an act of God. “I used to rely only on myself but now, I rely only on God,” he said. “When I went to Japan to fight Akira five days before, I weighed 121 pounds. I went on a liquid diet and with God’s help, I was 107.6 at the weigh-in. Two weeks before, I sparred 22 straight rounds with seven different boxers. In all, I sparred over 200 rounds in more than five months of training. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without God. I communicate directly with God. I go to different churches, not just one or two.”

Melindo said he studied Yaegashi’s style carefully and had the perfect antidote to win. “His plan was to fight me like (Javier) Mendoza, using the jab,” he said. “I attacked the body and it changed his movement. I used my left hook and left uppercut to hit the right side of his body which was wide open. I landed a counter left hook for the first knockdown then it was a left uppercut that dropped him for the second knockdown. I faked a left jab then hit him with a right straight for the last knockdown. I knew he was groggy. I never expected it to end so soon. I was ready to go 12 rounds. It was God who made it happen, not me.”

Melindo said before outpointing Thailand’s Fahlan Sakkreerin, Jr. for the interim IBF crown last November, he underwent a nose operation to repair a broken bone. The surgery left him with a keloid scar on his bridge. “It doesn’t bother me anymore,” he said. “But sometimes, it looks like my nose is swollen.”

Melindo said he leaves it up to Aldeguer to decide whom to fight next. Before the Tokyo bout, he had fought abroad in only four fights, twice in Macau, once in Mexico and once in Dubai. He lost in his first two attempts to win a world title, bowing to Mexico’s Juan Francisco Estrada in a WBO/WBA flyweight title fight in Macau in 2013 and to Mexico’s Mendoza on a sixth round technical decision for the IBF lightflyweight crown in Ensenada in 2015. Yaegashi later dethroned Mendoza and lost the crown to Melindo in his third defense. Melindo’s record is 36-2, with 13 KOs.