Asia & Oceania
Donaire Takes Bedak Out in Cebu City

Donaire Takes Bedak Out – Top Rank was at the Cebu City Sports Complex in the Philippines on Saturday night with a nine fight boxing card topped by Nonito Donaire’s WBO World Super Bantamweight title bout with Zsolt Bedak.
In feature action earlier in the card, veteran Jason Pagara saw his record go to 38-2 after winning a unanimous decision over veteran Miguel Zamudio, who falls to 35-8-1. The match was at welterweight.
The vacant WBC Continental Americas super featherweight title is going home with Australia’s Paul Fleming. Fleming was dropped in the opening round by opponent Miguel Angel Gonzalez, but Fleming got up and went on to win a unanimous decision by scores of 96-93, 97-92 and 97-92. Fleming, a 2008 Olympic representative, is now undefeated at 22-0 in his pro career.
The next fight had the local crowd going crazy for their 20 year old protege Mark Magsayo, who faced veteran Chris Avalos for the vacant WBO International featherweight title. The fight went back and forth, with Avalos scoring a knockdown in the third to put the crowd on edge. Magsayo came back strong however, and by the fifth he was starting to hurt Avalos. The sixth round saw Magsayo come out looking to finish, and by the 1:55 mark of the round, Avalos’ corner had seen enough as they threw in the towel to stop the fight. For Magsayo, he is now 14-0 (11).
In the main event, Donaire came out fast and from the outset his speed and length were going to be a problem for Bedak. For Donaire, it was the first defense of his newly attained WBO World title at 122 pounds. Donaire viewed a win here in a bout in which he was heavily favored as an absolute must, as his hopes of remaining relevant as he enters his mid-30’s hang around keeping that WBO bauble. Fighting in his home country, Donaire never gave Bedak much of a chance, and he scored the stoppage win at the 2:44 mark of round three.
Word from the Philippines is that venerable Top Rank chief Bob Arum skipped the long flight due to a bad back, but has plans for more Top Rank events in the land of the Pinoy.
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