SONNY Boy Jaro, Filipino WBC flyweight champ, is said to be so excited about his July 16 (that’s tomorrow) fight with challenger Toshioki Igarashi of Japan that he’s been having sleepless nights lately.
Is he excited or is he nervous? Sonny will need as many good night’s rest as he can if he wants to have an abundance of energy to dish out a knockout.
After all he’s been telling the press—jokingly perhaps—that he’s out to knock out the Japanese challenger … to spare the judges the tedious task of scoring.
If this does not happen, he’ll have to eat his words. Igarashi may be relatively inexperienced but he has the hometown advantage and height on his side. The fight will be held in Saitama, Japan.
Jaro said it’s not that he’s having cold feet as the fight nears. It’s just that this is his first defense of the belt he wrested from Pongsaklek Wonjongkam of Thailand last March 2 and it’s making him a bit anxious because he wants to hang on to his title a little longer.
* * *
The Filipino stunned the boxing world when he knocked out the Thai in the sixth round of their 12-round bout in Bangkok.
Jaro is eager to prove to one and all that the victory was no fluke. One of the reasons perhaps that his adrenalin flows so viciously at night when he should be sleeping.
His camp has not been remiss in reminding him of the importance of sleep.
They have advised him to get some shuteye while he still can, otherwise he might find himself snoring on the ring floor with his boots on on fight night.
Jaro will climb the ring tomorrow holding a record of 34-10-5 with 24 knockouts as against his opponent’s mark of 15-1-1 with 10 KOs.
* * *
More and more homegrown Filipinos and Fil-Americans are being lured to participate in mixed martial arts.
Last night’s PXC (Pacific Exteme Combat) for example, was dominated by this breed of fighters led by Justin “The Shocker ” Cruz of Guam and Crisanto “The Slugger” Pitpitungue of the Philippines.
Justin is the reigning PXC bantamweight champion who was defending his title against challenger Pitpitugue.
Another Filipino in last night’s card was Tristan Arenal who had previously fought on Philippine shores.
Interestingly, other Pinoy fighters from mixed martial arts tournament like URCC (Phils) and ONE FC (Singapore) assisted in the corners.
Interesting because they came here to have a look-see of PXC 31, staged at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig by Guam promoters Gerry and EJ Calvo. They’d like to witness firsthand the world class production that PXC is doing.
Already in the works this early according to AKTV’s Peachy Guioguio, is PXC 33 which will also be held here in Manila in September.
This edition will have a double main event featuring John Tuck vs Harris Sarmiento and Ale Cali vs Erwin Tagle.
Erwin is the AKTV analyst for PXC fights and he’s raring to be in the ring.