Michael Dasmariñas eyes IBF title in hopes of joining PH boxing elite

Michael Dasmarinas. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Michael Dasmariñas has had prior experience holding championship gold, but he knows he still has to do more if he wants to become one of Philippine boxing’s elite.

The Philippines is littered with great boxers throughout history with Pancho Villa starting the lineage that includes icons like Gabriel Elorde, Ceferino Garcia, Dado Marino, through to Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Jerwin Ancajas, and Donnie Nietes.

And Dasmariñas can get the chance of a lifetime if he wins his IBF World bantamweight title eliminator in the Rising Stars card Saturday at Newport Mall in Resorts World Manila.

“The IBF title is one of the major titles and I want to be part of that group of Filipino boxers who’ve become an IBF champion,” said Dasmariñas Friday.

Dasmariñas held the IBO World bantamweight belt after he beat Karim Guerfi in 2018 but he knows the title once owned isn’t considered as one of the top prizes in boxing.

The IBO first got recognition in the late 1990s and 2000s when the legendary Lennox Lewis, regarded as the last undisputed heavyweight champion, held the sanctioning body’s dark green belt with the IBF, WBC, and WBA championships.

This day and age, though, the WBO has risen to prominence and is considered as one of the major sanctioning bodies together with the WBC, WBA, and IBF.

And it’s that kind of notoriety Dasmariñas (28-2-1) wants especially if that means joining the likes of Pacquiao, Donaire, Ancajas, and Nietes as Filipino boxers to have become IBF champions.

“Personally I don’t feel any pressure but I motivate myself because I also want to become a World champion like those men,” said Dasmariñas who has yet to meet Pacquiao even though the boxing legend’s MP Promotions is co-promoting the card with Scott Farrell’s Ringstar Asia.

“I want to win this fight and I want to show the results of my training because I know it will help me a lot,” said Dasmariñas. “And I’m happy for tomorrow because that will be the first time that I will meet Manny in person so I’m excited.”