PHILIPPINE lightflyweight champion Jerson “Smooth Operator” Mancio will embark on the biggest fight of his budding boxing career as he faces Japanese Naoya Inoue for the vacant Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) light flyweight title on Dec. 6 in Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan.
Mancio, who is a regular protagonist in the ALA-Cobra Tunay Na Lakas fight cards, will try to follow the steps of OPBF flyweight champion Rocky “The Road Warrior” Fuentes, who has defeated rated Japanese boxers in his long campaign in Japan.
The 26-year-old Mancio (18-3-3, 9KOs) will be going up against an unbeaten newbie in Inoue, who sports a record of four wins, three via knockouts.
Mancio won the PH light flyweight title against Jovel Romasasa last August via a second round technical knockout. /CORRESPONDENT DALE G. ROSAL