By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Finally, a Filipino is once again a champion in the sport of boxing.
Facing a determined Yudai Shigeoka of Japan, Pinoy pug Melvin Jerusalem stuck to his game plan and scored a split decision win to clinch the World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight championship belt on March 31, 2024, at the International Conference Hall in Nagoya, Japan.
Despite taking on the home bet in unfamiliar territory, Jerusalem quickly earned the vote of the judges in the first half of the fight as he flaunted his sneaky jabs and efficient counter-punching.
All hell broke loose in the second round after Jerusalem scored the first knockdown of the fight when he landed a perfectly timed right counter punch that floored the Japanese star.
After scoring his first knockdown, Jerusalem began to turn on the jets and dominated the next rounds with his steady counter-punching.
Aside from his signature right counters, Jerusalem also banked on his body shots to neutralize Shigeoka’s hounding pressure.
Jerusalem sent the Japanese down to the canvas for the second time in the fight during the sixth round to grab a commanding lead in the scorecards.
However, just when the Filipino thought he could go away with an easy win, Shigeoka began to bounce back and retaliated in the final rounds.
Noticing Jerusalem’s exhaustion from his early explosions, the Japanese outworked him from rounds 9-12 that made the fight interesting.
It then all went down to the judges’ decision as two of the officials scored the bout 114-112 in favor of Jerusalem while the other scored it 114-113 in favor of the Japanese.
