Pagara, AJ Banal crush foes in Pinoy Pride 23 undercard

QUEZON CITY, Philippines - - In a masterful display of punching skills, ALA Gym standouts Jason ‘El Nino’ Pagara and AJ "Bazooka" Banal pulled off impressive wins over their respective foes in the star-studded undercards of the "Pinoy Pride XXIII: Filipinos Kontra Latinos" boxing extravaganza last night at the packed Smart Araneta Coliseum here.

Pagara (32-2, 12KOs) successfully defended his WBO International light welterweight belt with a lopsided unanimous decision over Vladimir Baez (19-2, 17KOs) of the Dominican Republic.

Pagara flashed tremendous power and speed as he relentless battered Baez, whom he knocked down in the ninth round with a vicious overhand to the head.

Baez gamely stood his ground despite fighting with a bloodied nose, but Pagara was so dominant in cruising his way to a convincing victory. Pagara earned the nod of the three judges with the scores of 98-91,98-90 and 99-90.

Banal, on the other hand, continued his quest to resurrect his once glorious career with a one-sided beating of his hapless Puerto Rican rivalLucian Gonzales. The officials scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 100-90 all for the resurgent ALA Boxing Gym mainstay, who improved his record to 30-2-1 laced with 21KOs.

It was Banal's second straight victory after his second failed attempt at a world crown when he got knocked out in the ninth round by Thai Pungluang Sor Singyu in their WBO bantamweight title bout on October 20 last year at

the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Earlier, former OPBF bantamweight champion and one-time world challenger Jimrex "The Executiner" Jaca needed just one round to knock the lights off his Indon rival Wellem Reyk. He landed a crushing left straight to the body that sent Reyk down at the seat of his pants for good at the 2:24 mark of the opening session. (FREEMAN)