By ADRIAN STEWART CO

Negrense boxer John Michael Zulueta retained his Asian Boxing Federation (ABF) light flyweight belt with a tenth-round technical knockout (TKO) win over Indonesian Silem Serang at the SpacePlus Night Club in Bangkok, Thailand on Thursday, April 27.

The Negros Occidental’s Calatrava-native Zulueta displayed his firepower since the opening rounds as he unloaded solid combinations and straights to the body and the head that rocked Serang.

The Negrense fighter continued to pounce on the Indon fighter in the succeeding round before the match was halted by referee Worawuth Duankhao at the 1:08 mark of the 10th round.

It was the second successful defense of Zulueta of the 112-pound division belt after retaining the title late last year when he forced Thai boxer Suriya Kraimanee to a split draw.

Aside from retaining the ABF belt, Zulueta also recorded a rare feat by a Filipino boxer with his triumph over Serang as it was the Negrense fighter’s fourth stoppage win in his last five matches in Thailand.

Prior to Serang, Zulueta scored a fifth round TKO win over Indonesian Jack Amisa, before following it up with a first round stoppage win against Thai Somphon Banyaem and a second round TKO win over Sittichai Nimnual.

Zulueta, also a former champion in the minimumweight division, maintained his untarnished slate of 15-0-3 win-loss-draw, with eight victories by way of knockouts after the win.

On the part of the 33-year-old Serang, he suffered his third consecutive knockout defeat as he saw his boxing record dropped to 19-26-3 win-loss-draw, with only two victories by stoppages.

Ador Torres (8-4-1, five KOs) also retained his ABF welterweight championship following a third-round knockout victory against erstwhile undefeated Thai boxer Phiraphong Phuitthoeng (2-1-0, two KOs).

Filipino-American JV Tuazon (4-4-2, two KOs) recorded his third consecutive victory following a sixth-round majority decision triumph (57-57, 58-56, 58-56) over Amisa (21-51-3, 14 KOs)./ASC, WDJ