Two exciting fighters of the Braveheart Boxing Club of North Cotabato will defend their respective World Boxing Organization (WBO) Oriental titles on Aug. 1 in time for the week-long celebration of this town’s foundation anniversary.
Lorenzo “Thunderbolt” Villanueva, 23, will defend his featherweight title against compatriot Balweg Bangoyan, the former World Boxing Council (WBC) International junior featherweight champion while Rommel “Little Assassin” Asenjo, 21, will stake his miniflyweight crown in a fight against veteran Bimbo Nacionales.
WBO vice president Leon Panoncillo is expected to supervise the title fights.
M’lang Mayor Lito Pinol, who is staging the fight with the help of his brother, Mayor Efren of Magpet town, said the double WBO Oriental Championship Event is not only a celebration of the town’s foundation anniversary but also a toast to M’lang’s first world boxing champion, Edrin “The Sting” Dapudong who won the WBC Flyweight Silver Championship via a 1st round knockout in Mexico, June 19.
Villanueva, who holds a record of 18 wins, 17 KOs and 1 no decision, will be making the second defense of the title he won via a 10th round stoppage of former Asian Games gold medallist and WBO Oriental champion Balweg Bangoyan of Davao del Sur.
The world-rated Bangoyan, 23, holds a record of 15 wins, 6 by KO, against a solitary loss at the hands of WBC superbantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka whom the Filipino fought for the world championship in April this year. [Carlos Bautista]
Asenjo, on the other hand, has a record of 19 wins, 16 by KO, against two losses while Nacionales has an incomplete record with boxrec.com and is listed only as having five professional fights with four wins, two by KO, and one loss.
