By ADRIAN STEWART CO
Negrense fighter Joepher Montaño captured the Asian Boxing Federation (ABF) welterweight crown after a sixth round stoppage victory over Iranian Khashaiar Ghassemi at the RCA Plaza in Bangkok, Thailand on Thursday night, March 30.
This was the third welterweight division belt of the Negros Occidental’s Bago City-native Montaño, after capturing the World Boxing Organization Oriental edition last year and World Boxing Association-Asia earlier this year.
Dubbed as “El Gwapito,” Montaño displayed his punching power in the first few rounds with his accurate left and right combinations that stunned Ghassemi, who is a known knockout artist.
Ghassemi also had his moments in the championship clash as he unloaded several combinations, but Montaño answered with cracking punches that forced the referee to stop the match in the sixth round.
With the victory, the 26-year-old Negrense boxer increased his boxing record to 15 wins, five losses and two draws, including 13 victories by way of knockouts, while Ghassemi saw his record dropped to 7-4-0, with all of his wins by stoppages.
Meanwhile, Negrense fighter Herlan Sixto Gomez also retained his ABF bantamweight championship following a stoppage victory over Thai boxer Wisanu Por Nobnum Kokietgym in the co-main event.
This was the first successful title defense of the Negros Occidental’s Enrique B. Magalona-native Gomez, who captured his title with a fourth round stoppage win over veteran Wicha Phulaikhao last February.
With the victory, Gomez improved his impressive record to eight wins as opposed to one defeat. He also nailed his fifth knockout victory.
Kokietgym dropped to 47-11-2, with 16 KO wins.
On the other hand, KJ Natuplag of Ifugao (12-4-2, 11 KOs) was also victorious in the undercard bout as he scored a first round technical knockout win over Thai Nakharin Hangyu (4-6-0, 2 KOs).
Another Filipino in Conrado Tanamor was unsuccessful as he suffered a second round stoppage defeat against now WBC ABC Continental super featherweight champion Zhi Gang Zhang of China./ASC, WDJ