Peñalosa, Casimero stop foreign foes

Tough challenges coming from foreign fighters brought out the best from Filipino boxers as they all scored knockout wins as ESPN5 Boxing’s card Saturday night at the Skydome in SM North EDSA.

In the main event of the card copresented by GerryPens Promotions, Dave “The Hunter” Peñalosa scored the biggest win of his career as he scored a technical knockout victory over the game Marcos Cardenas of Mexico. The end came at the 2:47 mark of the fourth round.

Peñalosa was challenged by the tough visitor as he gamely exchanged heavy leather against the undefeated Filipino. The Hunter was rocked early in the fourth round but it only woke him up as the doubled up on his efforts. The first knockdown came from a big straight that put Cardenas on wobbly legs before dropping on all fours.

With the defense of the Mexican focusing on protecting his head, Peñalosa saw another opening as he dug to the body of Cardenas for the second knockdown. Another body punch secured the third and final knockdown as referee Danrex Tapdasan signaled the end of the bout via technical knockout. Peñalosa remained undefeated and improved to 15 wins with 11 knockouts.

Former two-division world champion John Riel Casimero also emerged victorious as he stopped Kenya Yamashita of Japan 47 seconds into the sixth round. Casimero is hoping to be only the fourth Filipino boxer to become a three-division world champion after Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, and Donnie Nietes as he started his bantamweight campaign with a bang. —