Australian Boxing: Letoa Stuns Vlamis to Capture OPBF Light Heavyweight Title

By Srithar Visuasam: In front of a capacity crowd at the Malvern Town Hall, Melbourne, Australia, Togasilimai Letoa (12-9-1, 7 KOs) knocked out WBA #12 Manny Vlamis (11-3, 8 KOs) in the third round of their scheduled twelve round bout to capture the vacant OPBF light heavyweight title.

Entering the bout having lost 7 of his past 8 bouts, Letoa shaped up against Vlamis as the significantly larger fighter, appearing in top condition, which had an immediate impact as he made Vlamis taste his power from the outset. In the second round, an upset looked quite a realistic possibility as Letoa put Vlamis to the canvas with a right hand that had him in trouble..

Vlamis came out with aggressive intent in the third and appeared to be winning the round, before the composed Letoa again dropped Vlamis, who managed to get up relatively quickly. However his corner had saw enough and threw in the towel 2:16 into the round. Letoa was a very humble and gracious winner and his excellent performance should see him rewarded with some big fights in the future on the Oceania scene.

The fight of the night and a front runner for Australian fight of the year came in the main supporting bout as light heavyweights Callan Orchard (7-2, 2 KOs) and Lyndon Edney (3-3, 1 KO) put it all on the line in their clash for the Victoria State light heavyweight title. The fight started reasonably even before Edney rocked Orchard in round three several times, which saw Orchard struggle to stay on his feet.

The all out attack in that round seemed to take its toll on Edney, with the next three rounds seeing Orchard control the pace of the fight with relative ease, putting all the pressure on Edney who seemed to slow down considerably. With the fight slipping from his grasp, Edney dug deep in the seventh round almost replicating his performance in the third round and again having Orchard in trouble.

The eighth and final round saw Orchard take control before Edney came back in the latter stages of the round in a classic finish. The scorecards read 77-75 Orchard, 77-75 Edney with the final scorecard reading 78-74 to a deserved winner Callan Orchard. The fight was such a great spectacle that sponsors of the event Ultra Tune gave a $1,000 bonus to each of the two fighters.

In other fights, Addisu Tebebu (3-2-3) was unlucky to not emerge with a win after his encounter with undefeated Terry Tzouramanis (6-0-3, 1 KO) ended in a split draw. Joel Camilleri (1-0, 1 KO) made an impressive debut in his second round win over Yodmongkol Singmanasak (11-11-1, 7 KOs). Michael Herrmann (2-1, 1 KO) scored a unanimous 60-53 points victory on all three cards against Ben Capps (1-1), which included a second round knockdown.

Craig Callaghan (1-0) defeated Braiden Clardey (0-2) at 0:01 into the second round of their bout after Clardey was deemed no longer fit to continue, in a bout which saw Callaghan drop Clardley with a left hand bodyshot in the first round and Pat Lynch (1-0) scored a second round stoppage victory over Dale Berry (0-1), after Berry was unable to continue due to injury.

The night’s action was promoted by Peter Maniatis Promotions with highlights scheduled to be shown on the KO Boxing program on Channel 31 across Melbourne, Victoria and on Aurora broadcast on Foxtel.