KUALA Lumpur—Just like any young Filipino boxer, Jhack Tepora looked up to “Sir Manny Pacquiao,” when he was growing up.
On Sunday, just before the main event, the 25-year-old Cebuano realized his dream of becoming a world champion like Pacquiao when he knocked out Mexican Edivaldo Ortega for the interim WBA featherweight crown.
Fighting for the first time on the big stage, Tepora (22-0 with 17 knockouts) came out with the big punches to end the fight in 2:38 of the ninth round, a victory he hoped would open bigger opportunities for him.
“The Lord gave me this victory,” said Tepora, a former member of the national juniors team.
But it didn’t come easy.
“Ortega was very tough, I will not push to knock him out right away,” continued Tepora after emerging from the dressing room with bruises on his face.
“It’s a big achievement for me already because it’s been my dream to become world championlike Sir Manny,” he said.
Tepora said he wasn’t expecting to knock the Mexican (20-1-1) out but he felt it was coming when “my punches started landing.”
Carlos Canizales of Venezuela also scored a stoppage in another world title fight, crushing China’s Lu Bin in 2:58 of the eighth round for the WBA light flyweight championship.
Canizales, now 21-0-1 with 17 KOs) punished Bin (1-1 with 1 KO) that had the Chinese—only on his second professional fight—carried out of the Axiata Arena on a stretcher and straight to the hospital.
South American Moruti Mthalane also won in the third of the four world title fights of the “Fight of Champions” card, beating Muhammad Waseem of Pakistan (8-1) via unanimous decision in their WBA flyweight title bout. Mthalane, who knocked out Filipino Johnriel Casimero in 2011 and lost via KO to Nonito Donaire Jr. in 2008, improved to 36-2 with 24 KOs.