It took two rounds for Carl Jammes Martin to knockout Komgrich Nantapech of Thailand and captured the vacant International Boxing Federation Pan Pacific super bantamweight belt during their banner fight on Dec. 17 at Cordillera Career Development College gym in La Trinidad, Benguet.
The impressive stoppage during the event dubbed “Fight for Glory” improved Martin’s slate of 21 wins, 17 by way of knockouts while Nantapech dropped to 31 wins and six losses.
In the first round, the 23-year-old Martin of Lagawe, Ifugao was on the offense with a combination of punches against the 33-year-old Thai boxer.
Nantapech, who had his guards up, landed some punches on Martin. But in the second round, Martin’s power punches proved too much for the Thai boxer as the latter fell after a three-combo punch.
Nantapech recovered and delivered some punches to Martin, but the latter answered back with a series of punches which was left unanswered forcing the referee to interfere.
The Thai challenger then dropped on the floor as the referee counted, finally stopping the bout before hundreds of boxing fans.
Martin said he looks forward to more international outings and thanked all those who supported his boxing journey. The Cordilleran boxing prodigy is eyeing a world title fight in a year or two.
Nantapech ‘s last defeat to a Filipino was against Donnie Nietes on April 29, 2017 for the IBF world flyweight belt.
In the co-main event, the fight between Edward Heno of Jaro Boxing Stable and Brian Lobetania of Highland Boxing Gym ended in a draw after eight-rounds of action.
The duo’s exchange of punches was probably the most action-packed fight during the night, paving way for the main event.
Alie Laurel also won via unanimous decision against Danny Tampipi in the six-round fight while first round knockout winners of the night were Team Pinoy Boxing Prodigy, La Trinidad’s MJ Uduna and Vincent Jorda winning against Jomar Borbon and Jhanjhan Himmiwat, respectively.
Ed Liwan bowed to Josaphat Navarro who won via majority decision while Elmar Zamora won via technical knockout at the first round of their fight.
Holmes Tagart knocked out Orlandino Sinaloba in the second round of their fight while curtain raiser Marsolo Pandian won via majority decision against Roel Reyes in the four-round event.
The Martin-Nantapech fight is the biggest fight staged in the locality since legendary Benguet boxer Rey Tam fought Apollo Yoshito for the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super featherweight belt on Nov. 20, 1977.
The event was made possible through Pinoy Boxing Prodigy Promotion in cooperation with Highland Boxing Stable, among other partners. – Ofelia C. Empian
