North Cotabato’s best bet in winning the first world boxing championship, Edrin “The Sting” Dapudong of M’lang, will leave for Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday for his June 15 rematch with Zulu fighter Gideon Buthelezi.
As Dapudong’s registered manager, I will accompany the 28-year-old farmer’s son from Barangay Pag-asa in the long trip which will take us to Dubai and then Johannesburg.
Trainer Aljoe Jaro will catch up with the team on June 14 as he has to pass by Dubai for a few days to finalize another world championship fight involving the Philippines’ Denver Cuello and China’s first world champion Zhong Zhao Xiong on June 28 in the city’s World Trade Center.
In November last year, Dapudong, Jaro and I were also in Johannesburg for the first meeting between the Filipino fighter and Buthelezi.
After 12 rounds where Dapudong mauled and knocked down the South African in the 9th round, two of the three judges declared the Zulu fighter the winner with the third judge, Reg Thompson of Great Britain picking the Fipino as the winner for a split decision victory for Buthelezi.
The decision in the Nov. 12 championship fight was widely criticized even by the South African media and following a complaint I filed the International Boxing Organization (IBO) which sanctioned the fight, ordered a rematch.
The rematch was supposed to have been staged in February but the South African promoters moved it to June.
Dapudong, one of the products of the grassroots boxing program I started as Governor of North Cotabato from 1998 to 2007, has prepared long for this fight and has been advised that he has to score a knock out to win the title.
Anything less than a knockout would bring in the ringside judges into the picture and boxing judges in South Africa are notorious for being biased towards local boxers.
“We need to score a knockout or else we will never bring home the title,” Jaro told Dapudong.
Dapudong knows this and he understands that this is an assignment that he must accomplish or else North Cotabato’s dream of winning its first world boxing title will have to wait for another year and another boxer.
(Photo caption: This photo showing South African boxer Gideon Buthelezi with a disfigured face was taken after he was declared winner over North Cotabato’s Edrin “The Sting” Dapudong on Nov. 10, 2012 in Johannesburg.)
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