MANILA – Filipino boxer Jhunriel Ramonal pulled off a stunning first round stoppage win over Japanese Yusaku Kuga to clinch the WBO Asia Pacific super bantamweight belt at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
It was the second consecutive upset victory of Ramonal against Japanese fighters. He pulled off a stoppage upset over former world rated boxer Shingo Wake on October also in Tokyo.
The heavily underdog Ramonal immediately made his presence felt on Tuesday. He landed a vicious right cross over Kuga and had him counted out by the referee at 1:24 mark of the opening round.
“Our hard work and sacrifices of spending the holidays away from our family were all worth it. We will go home with the WBO belt,” said Ramonal’s manager Dino Olivetti.
With the victory, the 30-year-old Ramonal improved his record to 17-8-6, with 10 wins by way of stoppages, while Kuga saw his slate dropped to 19-4-1, including 13 knockout wins.
Meanwhile, former world champion Johnrey Loreto failed to make it two in a row for the Filipinos to end the year 2019. He suffered a fifth round stoppage loss to WBO Asia Pacific minimumweight champion Ginjiro Shigeoka of Japan.
Shigeoka (5-0, 4 KOs) impressively knocked out Loreto (25-15, 17 KOs), 105, with a cracking left cross to have the Filipino veteran out for the count at 2:13 mark of the fifth round./PN
