This Friday night in Tokyo Japan a young Filipino boxer will take his chance at reaching his dream by stepping into the ring with the current WBC World Superbantam Weight Champion, Toshiaki Nishioka. Balweg Bangoyan, the 23 year old Filipino high school sophomore dropout who was jailed for street-fighting when he was 16, decided to make boxing a living after being taken under the wing of his manager Zander Khan and now holds a professional record of 15-0, with 9 of his wins having come from knockout..
What is also special about this World title fight is that Bangoyan will carry the logo of Australias very own Elmore Oil Company on his robe and shorts when he enters the ring. The Elmore Oil Company uses Balweg to endorse its charity for street children in the Philippines and the Filipino fighter is an avid endorser of Elmore Oil, using in his training regime to assist his injury recovery program.
The Davao del Sur based boxer now feels “he’s ripe and ready to take on WBC superbantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka” in a 12-round title bout at the Nihon Budokan, Tokyo, this Friday April 30th.
“This is a chance of a lifetime,” said Bangoyan, the oldest of five children. “Although it’s my first fight abroad, I’m not nervous. I’ve been watching some of Nishioka’s fights and I think he’s beatable. He’s just an average fighter, not exceptionally strong or skilful. He’s the type who stands up and waits for his opponent to come in. He’s not that fast. If I use my brains and power, I think I can take him.”
Bangoyan, a two-time WBC International title holder, now ranked No. 11, said he’s dedicating the fight to Jose Abad Santos town Mayor Zander Khan, his manager. Khan took over a stable of some 20 fighters from his uncle Armand Bangoyan, a retired boxer who was killed in an ambush in 1985.
“I owe everything to Mayor Zander,” said Bangoyan. “He takes care of me and my family. Even my father Felix is employed in his security staff.”
Another of Khan’s fighters, Arman Picar, battled Julio Cesar Vasquez for the WBC lightwelterweight crown and lost by a second round knockout in Las Vegas in 1994. Bangoyan’s title shot is only the second for a Khan fighter.
“I like Balweg’s chances,” said Khan. Nishioka is 33 and I think he’s over the hill. Balweg is at his peak and he’s working very hard in the gym.”
Bangoyan was training for a bout against Korea’s Jong Won Jong in Digos City in February when he got a call offering the title shot. “Balweg didn’t want to disappoint the hometown fans and still pushed to fight Jong but the WBC refused to allow it because of the possibility of injury which would cancel the Nishioka bout,” explained Khan.
The Elmore Oil Company stepped in to sponsor the fight program in Digos City in March, providing financial support for the 12 fight promotion, which attracted a local crowd in excess of 10,000 people. The Elmore Oil Company is heavily involved in charity work in the Philippines, with the creation of the Elmore Oil Trust Fund for Street Children in 2009. The trust fund, which is totally financed from proceeds from the sale of Elmore Oil in the Philippines, distributes food for street kids by providing mobile vans which operate throughout regional cities, handing out rice and dried food to the needy, and often orphaned, street kids.
Bangoyan, whose mother Medelyn Miyake is half-Japanese, said he is proud to be an ambassador for Elmore Oil and The Trust Fund for Street Children, as it provides a better future for so many of the disadvantaged children of the Philippines. Balwegs biggest fight purse so far was just 300,000 pesos for beating Raymond Sermona to claim the vacant WBC International belt last September. His purse for the Nishioka fight will be substantially bigger.
“Nishioka has power so I can’t afford to relax,” he said. “But he’s not Superman. He was dropped by Jhonny Gonzalez in their fight last May but got up to score a knockout. If I keep my focus, I know I’ll win.”
Nishioka’s southpaw style won’t be a problem, said Bangoyan. “I knocked down Sandie Otieno, who is a southpaw, and beat him on a technical decision two years ago,” he continued. “Otieno was unbeaten before our fight. I had no difficulty breaking down his left-handed style.”
Experience will be on Nishioka’s side. The Japanese turned pro in 1994, eight years before Bangoyan, and has compiled a 35-4-3 record, with 22 KOs. He hasn’t lost in his last 12 outings. Nishioka engaged Thailand’s Veeraphol Sahaprom in four fights for the WBC bantamweight title from 2000 to 2004, losing twice on points and drawing twice. He won the WBC 122-pound title via a 12th round stoppage of Genaro Garcia in January last year and has since repulsed two challengers Gonzalez and Ivan Hernandez. Nishioka has never been defeated by a Filipino and his list of victims includes Reynante Rojo, Rodel Llanita, Joel Avila, Joel Junio and Donaldo Estrella. Fernando Montilla once held him to a draw.
If Bangoyan can stop Nishioka he may very well start to share the world boxing spotlight with fellow countryman, Manny Pacquiao, who has been hailed as the greatest pound for pound fighter in boxing history.
Hitz Boxing Presents Mayweather/Mosley Broadcast, Meet and Greet with “Quest for 50” Participant
On Saturday, May 1 at the Venue in the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, promoter Bobby Hitz of Hitz Boxing will present a special live screening of the “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. “Sugar” Shane Mosley “Who R U Picking” super fight being held in Las Vegas.
The very special added attraction that night will be a meet-and-greet and autograph session with former light heavyweight world champion Montell Griffin, as well as many other participants in Hitz’s May 29 “Quest for 50” boxing event at The Venue in the Horseshoe.
Tickets for the special screening of the “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. “Sugar” Shane Mosley “Who R U Picking” super fight broadcast at the Venue in the Horseshoe Casino are priced at $10 and are available through Ticketmaster.
(http://www.ticketmaster.com/The-Venue-tickets-Hammond/venue/57749)
The broadcast begins at 8 pm.
And then on May 29 at the Venue in the Horseshoe Casino, Hitz will present “Quest for 50”, a night of professional boxing featuring former WBC Light Heavyweight Champion Montell Griffin’s quest for his 50th victory against former world title challenger Ross “The Boss” Thompson (27-14-2, 14 KOs).
The night’s undercard is packed with Chicago favorites such as Henry “Western Warrior” Coyle (10-2, 9 KOs), Achour Esho (7-0, 5 KOs), Terry Martin (4-0, 4 Kos), Mike Kurzeja (3-0, 3 KOs), Ninos Abraham (4-0, 1 KO), Russell Fiore (3-0, 3 KOs), John Lewus (23-4, 19 KOs) and the debut of Rafael Murphy.
For more information on the “Quest for 50” boxing event, visit
www.hitzboxing.com.
“Quest for 50” tickets are on sale now, starting at a fan appreciation price of $10, and are available at the “Venue” box office, ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets.
WORLD SERIES OF BOXING STAGES SUCCESSFUL TEST EVENT
Lausanne, Switzerland, 28th April 2010 – The World Series of Boxing (WSB), the new boxing championship set to launch in November 2010 has hosted a successful first test event in Baku, Azerbaijan.
For the top international boxers competing, it was their first experience of boxing over five rounds of three minutes without head guards. In a realistic test of the future WSB competition format, the AIBA-registered boxers were divided into two teams and trained for 10 days in Italy before travelling to Azerbaijan for the first simulation of the two-hour matches between the 12 city-based WSB franchise teams that will be a regular feature of the boxing calendar from November.
The event featured some of the world’s best boxers from around the world, representing countries such as France, Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil, Georgia, Moldova and the USA.
Ivan Khodabakhsh, WSB Chief Operating Officer was delighted with the results of the trial event. ‘After all the work that has gone into creating this exciting new competition for world boxing we’re really pleased to see everything coming together in one place. Our mission with WSB was to bring together the world’s best boxers in a competitive, professional and appealing format for both fans and boxers and this is an important step forward in achieving that goal.’
Both teams treated the test event as a serious competition and the boxers were keen to contest all the bouts. Thanks to a disciplined performance, the Blue team won four of the evening’s five bouts, with victories for the Ukrainian duo Vitaliy Volkov and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, France’s Ludovic Groguhe and Hungary’s Istvan Bernath. Brazil’s Everton Lopes, competing for the Red team, was the only non-European to win a bout at the WSB test event.
In the opening bout, Vitaliy Volkov beat European champion and German number one Denis Makarov in the bantamweight (54kg) category. Despite the defeat, Makarov enjoyed the experience of training with a new team. “I get excited before every bout, but I was the first out tonight so I think nerves did play a part,” he said. “It wasn’t easy and you need to adapt your strength over the five rounds. I enjoyed the experience and we worked well as a team.”
The Red team took their only victory of the evening in the lightweight (61kg) bout when youngster Everton Lopes from Brazil upset Georgia’s Kobar Pkhakadze. The surprise victory raises Lopes’ value to the teams ahead of the WSB draft at the end of June and builds on a promising early career that has seen him make the quarterfinals at the 2009 AIBA World Championships and the 2009 AIBA President’s Cup at only 19 years of age.
In the middleweight (73kg) contest, Ukrainian national champion Sergiy Derevyanchenko beat Brazil’s Yamaguchi Falcao. Derevyanchenko took gold at the 2009 AIBA President’s Cup but Yamaguchi was thwarted at the same event by Moldova’s Victor Cotiujanschii.
In the evening’s most anticipated bout, Sijuola Shabazz from the United States faced France’s Ludovic Groghue. Shabazz had been talking up his chances in the run-up to the event, but it was Groghue who delivered on the night, easing to victory over the five rounds. After his win he said: “A WSB career would do me good. It’s nice to win. I give my all and I train hard and do my best to get some victories. It would be nice to make the Olympic Games and why not even win a medal, but they are just around the corner.”
In the heavyweight (+91kg) contest Hungary’s Istvan Bernath defeated Javier Torres from the USA on the only split decision of the evening. The Hungarian reflected on the need to adapt to the longer duration of the bouts, a sentiment echoed by many of the other boxers on the evening. “I feel very good. I enjoyed fighting over 5 rounds. I was fine over four rounds but a bit tired in the fifth. I just need to train a little bit more and I will be fine,” he said.
Although the test event was closed to the public, it nevertheless drew a crowd of interested spectators from the youth squads already in Baku. This made for an exciting atmosphere that hinted at the potential of this ground-breaking tournament as the first international boxing series featuring world-class boxers.
Rights free images attached
1) Vitaliy Volkov (UKR) in blue celebrates his victory over European champion and German number one Denis Makarov in red in the bantamweight (54kg) category at the World Series of Boxing Test Event in Baku, Azerbaijan on 22nd April 2010.
2) Everton Lopes from Brazil rests between rounds in the lightweight (61kg) bout of the World Series of Boxing Test Event in Baku, Azerbaijan on 22nd April 2010. Lopes beat Georgia’s Kobar Pkhakadze.
3) Ukrainian national champion Sergiy Derevyanchenko (blue) leads against Brazil’s Yamaguchi Falcao (red) at the World Series of Boxing Test Event in Baku, Azerbaijan on 22nd April 2010. Derevyanchenko took gold at the 2009 AIBA President’s Cup and beat Yamaguchi over the five-round test bout.
4) Sijuola Shabazz (red) from the United States faces France’s Ludovic Groghue (blue) in the light heavyweight (85kg) bout at the World Series of Boxing Test Event in Baku, Azerbaijan. Groghue won the bout for the blue team
5) Hungary’s Istvan Bernath (blue) faces off against Javier Torres (red) from the USA before the heavyweight (+91kg) bout of the World Series of Boxing Test Event in Baku, Azerbaijan on 22nd April 2010. Bernath won on the only split decision of the event