Espino wins the national title

Eiji,
 
I read that your fighter won. 
Here is the article I read. 
Congratulations buddy,
I’m sure you did a great job.
 
Conor
 
 --

Cirilo Espino won the vacant Games and Amusements Board Philippine featherweight title by a unanimous decision over Adonis Aguelo. The title fight was held at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology Gym in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte. It was a title fight between Aguelo the number one contender and Espino the number two contender of the GAB ratings.
 

The title was vacated by Michael Fareñas who moved up to the higher superfeatherweight division. Fareñas fought for the WBA world superfeatherweight title against Takashi Uchiyama in Japan which resulted in a technical draw. He also challenged Yuriorkis Gamboa for the the interim WBA superfeatherweight title and lost during the undercard of the fourth Pacquiao-Marquez encounter in Las Vegas, Nevada.


According to manager Willie Flores, Aguelo exerted so much effort in reducing to 126 lbs. to stay within the featherweight limit. He has ballooned to 145 lbs. and had to trim down in a short period of time. It resulted in a rather sluggish fight for the Maasin City native enroute to a deficit in points.

Espino, who hails from Sarangani and is now fighting out of Lipa City, Batangas, used his ring brilliance to pin Aguelo and slowed him down. The 30-year-old grizzled fighter sent Aguelo down to the canvas in the sixth round. The 24-year-old Aguelo immediately got up but could not penetrate the tight defense and could not go with the offensive blows of the fighter who has 31 fights in his career.

Espino raised his professional record to 18-11-2 (11 KOs) slate. He became Philippine champion in his first title bout. Prior to the title win, he lost to Shogo Ishikawa on November 11, 2012 in Japan by a unanimous decision. He won over Masatoshi Kotani by 9th round TKO on July 8, 2012 also in Japan. He lost to Carlos Lopez of Timor Leste on June 3, 2012 for the WBO Asia Pacific superbantamweight title by majority decision in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Aguelo’s record dipped to 18-8-1 with 11 KO wins. This is his second failed attempt for the GAB Philippine championship. He failed in his first try for the Philippine featherweight crown when he lost to Vinvin Rufino in Pasay City in 2010 by majority decision.

Aguelo hails from Barangay Matin-ao of Maasin City and is the son of the former village chief Gregorio Aguelo, himself a former boxer. It was his father who first introduced him the basics of boxing and he was later turned over by his father to the Maasin City Sports Council under the late trainer Tiny Espina. He turned professional at the age of 19 under the Rex Wakee Salud boxing stable.

This writer advised Flores to let Aguelo move to the higher superfeatherweight division. His body weight has increased considerably and is no longer fit for the featherweight category. Next in line is a possible Philippine Boxing Federation superfeatherweight championship in Maasin City in May.