Silvano wins vacant WBO Oriental title

VIRGILIO “Maton” Silvano of the Omega Boxing Gym won the vacant WBO oriental junior flyweight title by unanimous decision in a brutal 12-round war against Jetly Purisima of General Santos City last Saturday at the Balamban Sports Complex in Balamban town, western Cebu.

The scores read 116-110, 116-110 and 115-111 in favor of the 23-year-old Silvano, who improved his record to 17W-2L-1D, 10 KOs. The 25-year-old Purisima dropped to 17W-13L-4D, 5 KOs.

The bout was close for most of the time until Silvano delivered an emphatic finish by knocking down an exhausted Purisima in the 12th round. Purisima got up but Silvano delivered another flash knockdown. Referee Atty. Danrex Tapdasan initiated another ten-count before the final bell rang for a dramatic finish.

Silvano was awarded the WBO regional belt by WBO VP for Asia-Pacific Leon Panoncillo.

Meanwhile, former WBO world superflyweight champion Marvin Sonsona showed no ill-effects from his almost 19-month layoff as he beat Jason Egera of Siaton, Negros Oriental by technical knockout in the eighth round.

Sonsona was light on his feet and used Egera as target practice with his right jab and well-timed straights. Sonsona continued to pummel Egera with sharp uppercuts and crosses in the ensuing rounds, inflicting a cut on Egera’s left eyelid. The referee decided that Egera had enough punishment for the night at the start of the eighth round.

This was Sonsona’s first fight since his fifth-round knockout win over Carlos Fulgencio of the Dominican Republic at the Hoops Dome in Lapu-Lapu last year.

Sonsona is now 17-1-1,14KOs while Egera dropped to 21-9, 10KOs.

In another match, world-ranked flyweight Froilan “The Sniper” Saludar also came back from a one-year hiatus to beat Julius Alcos by unanimous decision.

Saludar was the aggressor all throughout and Alcos used his veteran smarts and defensive skills just to survive.

All three judges scored it 100-90 for Saludar.

Undercards

In the undercards, Jordan Catubay beat Junny Salogaol by unanimous decision; Jahleel Payao knocked out Roel Garcia in round two; John Keenan Villaflor won a hard-fought unanimous decision over Jaybie Haya; Cristian “The Bomb” Araneta knocked out Gary Rojo in the third round; Jilbert Gumera needed only 40 seconds to knockout Mark Tubo; and Salatiel “Pakyaw” Amit won by second round knockout over Jesse Suacasa. /Correspondent Rene Bonsubre Jr.