Monday, April 2, 2007
Pacquiao-Morales IV in the making?
By NICK GIONGCO
WILL THERE be a fourth fight between ring gladiators Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales?
Although Morales badly lost the last two of his trilogy with Pacquiao, the 30-year-old Mexican revealed that there is a remote chance of facing the Filipino idol once again.
But that will only materialize once he succeeds in winning the World Boxing Council lightweight crown from David Diaz of the US in June.
Asked about the likelihood of a fourth meeting with Pacquiao in the 135-lb ranks, Morales was non-committal but gave a handful of scribes something to ponder about.
"When I was in the super-bantamweight division and decided to go up to featherweight, the fighters also went up to that weight," said Morales, who is in Manila as part of his promotional obligations with San Miguel Beer.
"Then when I went up to super-featherweight, the same thing followed. They also followed me," said Morales, who suffered two knockout losses to Pacquiao in January and November last year.
The last two years, Morales said he experienced difficulties making the super-feather limit of 130 lbs.
"But I think I will be very comfortable in lightweight," said Morales, who began fighting professionally in 1993.
But for a fourth meeting to happen, Pacquiao must first take care of unbeaten Jorge Solis on April 14 in San Antonio and rack up one or two wins against bigname super-featherweights like Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera or Joan Guzman.
While Pacquiao will sure feast on Morales as though the Mexican is a bowl of mouthwatering Sopa de Marisco El Diablo in the super-featherweight division, it remains to be seen whether the same thing’s going to happen once they square off in the lightweight class.
LITO SISNORIO DIES AFTER BEING KO’D BY SASAKUL
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 02 Apr 2007
Super flyweight Lito Sisnorio, a former WBC Youth Champion has died some hours after he suffered a fourth round knockout at the hands of former WBC flyweight champion Chatchai Sasakul at the Wat Sing School in Thailand.
Scott Mallon, a well-known boxing writer reported the death hours after we posted a story on the defeat of Sisnorio in a blatant mismatch between the 24 year old Filipino who was coming off a fourth round TKO to reigning WBC flyweight champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam in a ten round battle last January 26. It was the Filipino’s third succesasive defeat.
Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today learned that Sisnorio fell unconscious while going out for dinner several hours after he was knocked out. Doctors at Bangkok’s Piyamin Hospital said Sisnorio who underwent emergency brain surgery to remove a blood clot died on Saturday night after failing to regain consciousness. He had suffered serious head injuries.
It was clear to most boxing aficionados that Sisnorio fighting the former world champion was a terrible mismatch since aside from a far superior ring record Sasakul had won his last six fights, four by KO or TKO while Sisnorio had won only five of his eleven fights. Ringside reports disclosed that Sasakul nailed Sisnorio with a series of vicious right hooks who went down at 2:35 of the fourth round and was counted out. .
Sasakul is the same fighter who battered Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao for six rounds before Pacquiao caught him with a devastating combination to win the title by a sensational eighth round knockout in December 1998..
Games and Amusements Board boxing division chief Dr. Nasser Cruz told Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today he learned Sisnorio had “slipped out of the country without our permission or maybe he was there in Thailand for quite some time.”
Cruz said there was “this unscrupulous matchmaker from Thailand doing this” and the GAB had already informed the WBC Ratings Committee and the Thailand Boxing Commission about fighters who left the Philippines without the necessary clearance to fight.
The Manila Standard Today learned that one of the notorious Thais involved was a certain Panya who is known to most Filipino boxing people and it is suspected he works in connivance with Filipino identified as Bong Obero who was banned by the GAB but reportedly still continues with his illegal activities allegedly in connivance with some GAB officials past and present.
Dr. Cruz said they were trying to contact Sisnorio’s manager Jemmel Contayoso of Cotabato but said “he cannot be reached.”
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