Naha, Okinawa, Japan – World-rated Ryan Rey “Pretty Boy” Ponteras of the Philippines and Orient-Pacific ranked Go Onaga of Japan both made the 113-lb. limit yesterday during the official weigh-in at the Le Blion Hotel in Naha City.
Another Filipino fighter, Jose Ocampo of General Santos City and his Japanese opponent, Koseki Nakama of Okinawa, also made the weight paving the way for the staging of a big boxing event in this island of sports-hungry people.
Former world junior welterweight champion Akinobu Hiranaka, an Okinawan, is promoting the fight card which features four Japanese fighters against two Filipinos and two Thais.
In an island south of mainland Japan where big boxing events are staged only two to three times a year, the boxing card to be held at the Convention Center in nearby Ginowan City is expected to draw a big crowd.
Hiranaka, now a boxing commentator and a big-time industrial businessman in Japan, is remembered by Filipino boxing fans as the fighter who lost his title to Fil-Am Morris East by knockout on Sept. 9, 1992 in Tokyo.
The fight between Ponteras and Onaga will only be for 8 rounds, as is the fight between Ocampo and Nakama.
But this will have a lot of weight on the 23-year-old Ponteras, a former journeyman who has racked up four straight wins, three by knockout, since he joined the Braveheart Boxing Club of Kidapawan City, North Cotabato.
From obscurity, Ponteras is now rated No. 15 in the world by the International Boxing Federation (IBF) following his stunning victory over Thailand’s Ruslee Samor by a 4th round knockout in Bangkok in December last year.
A victory over the OPBF No. 12 ranked Onaga will further improve his world ranking and could draw him closer to a possible world championship fight.
Ponteras, originally from Santa Josefa, Agusan del Sur, has vowed to win this fight convincingly and use his prize money to complete the repair of his home damaged by Typhoon Pablo last year and where his widowed mother three siblings stay now.
The fights will start at 3:30p.m. (4:30 p.m. Philippine time) tomorrow, Sunday.
(Photo caption: Ryan Rey Ponteras strikes a fight pose with his opponent Go Onaga of Okinawa, Japan.)
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