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Amnat Ruenroeng retains title in foul-fest vs. Casimero

Fighters Network
27
Jun

IBF flyweight titleholder Amnat Ruenroeng retained his belt with a 12-round decision win over Filipino boxer Johnriel Casimero at the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday, June 27.

Ruenroeng (16-0, 5 knockouts) was credited with two knockdowns against Casimero (21-3, 13 KOs), beginning with a counter right in Round 2 that caught the 25-year-old from Ormoc City lunging in. A second knockdown was called in Round 7 when Casimero was pushed into the ropes by Ruenroeng following a glancing right hand.

Casimero appeared to knock Ruenroeng down in Round 3 when a counter left hook caused his glove to touch the canvas, but referee Larry Doggett ruled it a slip.

The fight was marred by excessive clinching and over a dozen throwdowns by Ruenroeng. Doggett issued five warnings before finally taking a point from Ruenroeng in Round 11.



“Amnat made the strategy how to win easy. It was not a dirty fight,” said Ruenroeng’s Filipino trainer, Aljoe Jaro, who claims Casimero had hit Ruenroeng in the leg during the fight.

“About the throwing down, that’s not an issue. Casimero was also playing dirty. Amnat was doing his job as a boxer how to win.”

The roughhouse tactics detracted from an otherwise crafty, resourceful performance from the Thai incumbent champion, whose jab disrupted the rhythm of Casimero, who held the IBF junior flyweight title for two years before being stripped last year for failing to make weight for his fight with Mauricio Fuentes.

Casimero was the aggressor for the final 3 rounds, desperately trying to score a knockout to erase the deficit he found himself in.

Ruenroeng, 35, has now defended his belt four times successfully since winning it in January of 2014 with a victory over Filipino contender Rocky Fuentes.

On the undercard, Denver Cuello scored a fifth-round technical knockout of Indonesia’s Boy Tanto. Cuello (36-5-6, 24 KOs) dropped Tanto (9-17, 1 KO) in the third and fifth rounds before the referee waved the fight off.

Cuello’s manager/trainer Jaro says that his fighter, who is rated No. 1 by the WBC at 105 pounds, has been promised a shot at WBC strawweight titleholder Wanheng Menayothin before the end of the year.

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