Sultan & Tepora step up

It sure looks like things are looking bright for Cebu Boxing. With Milan Melindo fresh from defending his IBF world light flyweight title and Donnie Nietes all set to defend his IBF flyweight championship in November, the boxing community has been given a preview of the other boxers who’ll be climbing up the world rankings very soon. They’re both young, pack power in both hands, can box their way to wins, and just recently defeated their toughest opponents in their careers. If it’s any coincidence, they scored career-defining wins in South Africa where they were both tabbed to serve as stepping stones for South Africa’s prospects (who ended up hitting the canvass instead). Both also find themselves in “nice” dilemmas which I’m sure their handlers don’t mind at all.

Introducing Jonas “Zorro” Sultan. Thanks to his upset over former two-division world champion Johnriel Casimero at Pinoy Pride 42 last week, Sultan is expected to be rated as the top challenger in the IBF super flyweight division (115 pounds) where Pinoy Jerwin Ancajas is the world champion. Sultan went into the fight as an underdog, owing to Casimero’s two world championship belts in the light flyweight and flyweight divisions, but Sultan proved that he was ripe for the big time and is now ready to take on the rest of the world’s top boxers. While his 14-3 (9 KOs) record doesn’t look impressive on paper, and while he hasn’t received as much media attention as his more popular stablemates at the ALA Boxing Gym (until now), Sultan has definitely arrived. As the top-rated challenger, he gets mandatory status to the championship of Ancajas. And so after figuring in the biggest Pinoy vs. Pinoy showdown of the year, do we see him in another Pinoy-Pinoy fight, this time for the IBF world junior bantamweight championship? Aside from Casimero, the other Pinoys in the IBF’s top ten for the division are Aston Palicte and Ryan Lumacad. We must note that this is the same weight division dominated by WBO champ Naoya Inoue of Japan and WBC champ Srisaket Sor Runvisai of Thailand who both defended their titles under one card recently in dominating fashion. Runvisai knocked out future Hall of Famer and P4P king Roman Gonzales, while Inoue has been practically toying with all opponents thrown at him. Does Ancajas stand a chance against both? And can Sultan pull off an upset against these two champions? Tough these choices may be, but these are situations Sultan doesn’t mind at all. There’s nowhere else to go but up.

The breaking news that converted our Saturday morning from good to great yesterday was the big second round knock-out win of Jhack Tepora over Lusanda Komanisi of South Africa for the WBO Inter-Continental featherweight championship (126 pounds). Check it out on youtube and you’ll see what I mean. Tepora’s right hook sent Komanisi to the canvass with the South African swept of his feet. I haven’t seen a KO like this in a long time. The referee did the right thing of stopping the fight after Komanisi fell down after attempting to get back up. This is Tepora’s fourth regional title after previously winning WBO Oriental and Asia Pacific Youth championships at the junior featherweight division (122 pounds). He also won a WBF Asia Pacific belt also at 122 pounds. What’s more impressive is that this is Tepora’s first fight overseas and it came against one of South Africa’s best who was also being primed for the big stage. While this win erases doubts about Tepora’s talent, what’s next for him? Will he be rated highly by the WBO in the featherweight division? Will he now campaign as a featherweight or go back down to the junior featherweight division (122 pounds)? This is a “nice” dilemma for Jhack that I’m sure others envy. He’s 21-0 with 16 knock-outs and is primed for bigger things up ahead. Looking at the featherweight division, WBO world champion Oscar Valdez just defeated Pinoy Genesis Servania yesterday via unanimous decision. Other big names include Pinoys Mark Magsayo and Albert Pagara, both from the ALA Boxing Gym. In the junior featherweight division, the WBO world champion is Jessie Magadaleno. The Pinoys ranked in the top ten here include former WBO bantamweight world champion Marlon Tapales, Nonito Donaire Jr. (who fights for the WBC Silver featherweight championship today in the U.S.) and Juan Miguel Elorde. Tepora’s handlers must be ecstatic with this accomplishment and can’t wait to work out Jhack’s next fight.

Now that they’ve made headway in their careers, Sultan and Tepora must remember that they need to level up even further and find ways to make themselves better boxers over-all. Complacency and laxity shouldn’t be part of their vocabulary as it will get tougher as they go up the ladder and sign up for those big fights up ahead. They can learn from Milan Melindo who lost twice in world title fights but bounced back to become a world champ. They can also learn from the experiences of Cebu Boxing’s Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista, AJ Banal, Rocky Fuentes, Arthur Villanueva, and Albert Pagara who all lost in the biggest fights of their careers. Villanueva and Pagara are now on their second “lives” but still have a long way to go. May the recent wins of Sultan and Tepora also boost the confidence and careers of those other young boxers who are looking for those big breaks in their careers. Kudos to Zorro and El Capitan.