By Nick Giongco
Hard-hitting Romero Duno has been promised by Oscar De La Hoya a coveted slot on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez’s headlining May 4th show at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
But the Filipino lightweight needs to hurdle past a mysterious Indian rival Saturday night as ESPN 5, SanMan Promotions and Mikee Romero’s 1-Pacman Partylist presents an explosive night of high-caliber boxing at the Midas Hotel.
Nicknamed ‘Ruthless’, Duno (18-1 with 14 KOs) locks horns with Kuldeep Dhanda in a ten-rounder that will serve as the main supporting match to interim World Boxing Association bantamweight titlist Reymart Gaballo’s activity fight against Japanese Yuya Nakamura in the main event.
While Gaballo gets the starring role, the spotlight falls on the 23-year-old Duno, who is under contract with De La Hoya’s Los Angeles-based Golden Boy Promotions (GBP).
“I was assured of a big fight in the Canelo fight in May,” said Duno, who captured the heart of De La Hoya when he knocked out highly-touted Mexican Christian Gonzalez, GBP’s fair-haired boy, in 2017.
Even JC Mananquil, Duno’s chief handler, believes it’s just a matter of time before Duno becomes the country’s next ring hero.
“He’a going to be a world champion this year,” said Mananquil.
Sportsman Mikee Romero, one of Duno’s major backers, is upbeat that the Cotabato City puncher will realize his dreams.
“Power is a great equalizer in boxing and Romero Duno has a lot of that,” said Romero.
Meantime, two-division world champion Gerry Peñalosa aims to take an even more active and dominant role in promoting fast-rising fighters and tried and tested campaigners with his Feb. 16 show at the Skydome of SM North in the Philippines.
Peñalosa, formerly the WBC super-flyweight and WBO super-bantam king, is lining up his nephew, unbeaten feather prospect Dave Peñalosa (14-0 with ten KOs) against Marcos Cardenas (19-6-1 with 15 KOs) of Mexico.
Ex-world fly titlist Johnreil Casimero (25-4-1 with 16 KOs) returns against Kenya Yamashita (13-4 with ten KOs) of Japan while another nephew of Peñalosa, Carl Peñalosa faces Wattana Phembaan (18-5-0 with 11 KOs).
ESPN5 is throwing its all-out support to Peñalosa’s Gerrypens Promotions in their quest not only to discover future world champions but for the Philippines to rally behind them.
TV5 chief Chot Reyes is pushing for the staging of regular boxing shows in line with the mission of tapping fresh talent.
“We have different boxing stables around the country producing top talent that can go up against the best in the world. We want the whole country to support our greatest warriors, and with ESPN5 broadcasting the fights live on free TV and digital, we not only give them a global stage – we put the whole world on alert,” said Reyes.
