TEPORA GETS BIGGEST BREAK

Jhack Tepora guns for vacant IBP featherweight crown as an undercard of the Pacquiao-Matthysse fight card

Fast-rising Cebuano prospect Jhack Tepora got the biggest break of his young career and will gun for the vacant International Boxing Organization (IBO) featherweight crown against Mexican Edivaldo Ortega on July 15 in the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Lucas Matthysse show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“All I want to say is that I want to thank OPSI and especially my manager Paulo Castillo for giving me this big break. I promise to win this fight but I won’t promise a knockout,” Tepora told SunStar Cebu.

He (Ortega) is very good, he’s very aggressive. I think my advantage over him is that I’m smarter. We have similar styles but it will be won on ring smarts. JHACK TEPORA

Tepora hasn’t fought for seven months since a second-round knockout of Lusanda Komanisi to win the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) Inter-Continental featherweight crown in South Africa.

Tepora is rated 4th in the World Boxing Association (WBA), 6th in the WBO and 14th in the International Boxing Federation (IBF) as a featherweight, and No. 11 in the World Boxing Council (WBC) as a super bantamweight.

Ortega should be Tepora’s toughest opponent to date. He has fought and beaten some elite fighters like former world champions Tomas Rojas, Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr. and Drian Francisco. His lone loss is against one-time world title challenger Eduardo Ramirez. /