Apolinar defends OPBF belt on Aug. 26

ORIENTAL and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) super bantamweight champion Pete Apolinar defends his belt against kickboxing star Yoshiki Takei on Aug. 26, at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Apolinar won his OPBF belt last April 2 with a 10th round knockout of experienced Jhunriel Ramonal in Parañaque City.

Before his win over Ramonal, the 27-year-old Apolinar suffered a huge career roadblock after losing to Jong Seon Kang via an eighth round knockout in a World Boxing Organization Oriental featherweight title fight in South Korea in 2021.

Apolinar recently stayed in Japan, along with world-ranked super flyweight KJ Cataraja, to help Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue in his preparation for a world title unification bout with Nonito Donaire Jr. on June 7.

Apolinar, who fights out of the Omega Boxing Gym in Cebu, is currently rated No. 16 by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and hopes that a win over Takei would boost him up the rankings for a run at the WBC super bantamweight world title, which is currently around the waist of Stephen Fulton.

On the other hand, Takei is looking to make a name for himself in the boxing world after an impressive career in kickboxing. He won the 2017 and 2019 K-1 World Grand Prix -55KG Tournaments.

He’s also the 2016 Krush Bantamweight Tournament champion and the 2015 WINDY KICK super flyweight champion.

Takei started his pro boxing career in 2021, in which he stopped Kazunori Takai in a single round. He followed up his stellar boxing debut with two more first round stoppages of Azusa Takeda and Kazuhiro Imamura. Takei continued to show glimpses of superstardom with a second round knockout win over Shingo Kawamura on April 22.

Apolinar is 16-2 with 10 knockouts, while Takei is 4-0 with four knockouts.