Suarez defends WBA Asia belt vs. tough Magali

FORMER Olympian Charly Suarez makes another title defense of his World Boxing Association (WBA) Asia featherweight title, this time, against tough journeyman Carlo Magali on Oct. 23 at The Flash Grand Ballroom of the Elorde Sports Complex in Parañaque City.

Suarez is looking to remain unbeaten and continue his ascent in the super featherweight division in the hopes of a world title run. He’s currently ranked No. 36 in the super featherweight division by the World Boxing Council (WBC), in which the current titleholder is American star Shakur Stevenson.

The 34-year-old Suarez’s year has been very impressive. He started 2022 with a 12th round technical knockout of Tomjune Mangubat to win the vacant WBA Asia belt. He followed up that win with a lopsided unanimous decision over Junny Salogaol in a tune-up last June. He then outclassed experienced Marjohn Yap by unanimous decision in his first WBA Asia title defense on Aug. 7.

Magali was supposed to fight in South Africa last Aug. 21 in an World Boxing Federation (WBF) lightweight title fight against Ayanda Nkosi but the fight was cancelled.

The 35-year-old Magali has a reputation of scoring huge upsets. One of the biggest wins of his career was when he knocked out Davey Browne Jr. to win the International Boxing Federation (IBF) Pan Pacific super featherweight belt in Australia. Unfortunately, Browne Jr. didn’t wake up from the knockout and died a few days later. Magali is also a former Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF).

He has also beaten the likes of Yap, twice, and Mark Gil Melligen and, just two years ago, Al Toyogon.

Suarez is 12-0 with seven knockouts, while Magali is 25-13-3 with 13 knockouts.

Also seeing action in the same card are unbeaten prospects Weljon Mindoro (8-0, 8 KOs) and Ali Canega (6-0-1, 4 KOs), and Claudevan Sese (7-3-3, 1 KO).