Two fairly big upsets in the Philippines this morning...

Vinvin Rufino defeated Mark Gil Melligen by TD8, and Monico Laurente defeated Marco Demecillo by comfortable UD.

:shock:

Rufino & Laurente (younger brother of Dennis) both have journeymen records with a dozen or more losses. Melligen (younger brother of Mark Jason) and Demecillo entered this morning still in the prospect/contender bracket with twenty-odd fights and only a handful of losses and one draw each.

Demecillo had previously only been thwarted by legitimate world class operators in countryman Arthur Villanueva (currently 27-0 and very promising) and current interim WBA 115lb champion David "Tornado" Sanchez of Mexico.

 

I would've previously said that Demecillo (but not Melligen, who it was already clear was inferior to his not-quite-ready-for-primetime and-never-going-to-be older brother) might be worth making one for, even with the pair of prior losses, since neither was anything to get hung about.

It would seem now, though, his chances of rebounding to amount to anything outside Pacific level are fairly slim.

 

Well they were both minor title bouts, FWIW.

Laurente successfully made a third defense of his Filipino 118lb title and Rufino scooped up the vacant Oriental & Pacific 126lb title vacated by Hisashi Amagasa when he dropped to super bantam to challenge Rigondeaux.

Really what these upsets mean is they might co-headline another show and be given chances to defend against two more prospect/contenders of a similar tier as Demecillo and Melligen again. If they can duplicate their successes it might open the door to a significantly bigger payday than what they're used to.

 

Yeah, it was specifically his going 1-0-1 (1) against Mabait that had me thinking Demecillo had world class possibility and caused me to give both Sanchez and Villanueva so much credit for stopping him and shutting him out respectively.

Maybe he did have some potential but just fizzled out.

Maybe it was just a bad style match-up for him.

Maybe the youngest Laurente brother just has a deceiving record and is actually pretty good.

(my guess is a combination of the 1st & 2nd options, considering Laurente has some ugly losses. Getting shut out by Tomoki Kameda isn't so bad, and he did run Malcolm Tuñacao very close in a split decision loss seven years ago - but his other ten are pretty unflattering...)

:conf

 

I guess it wasn't a massive upset, since Rufino had double Melligen's experience and has mixed with a higher class.

Melligen's best couple of wins are probably his back to back kayos last year of a couple of Thais: former WBC Asian featherweight champ Wongnala, and Duanaaymukdahan for the vacant WBO Oriental featherweight title (impressive because Duanaaymukdahan had lasted six with Felix Verdejo, never going down, before Melligen stopped him in four). Nothing too snazzy, but I have seen him referred to recently as having some upside. This loss to Rufino - which apparentlu included 2 knockdowns - is a major setback, if not a complete derailment of his career.

As for Rufino being unlucky in his last OPBF title attempt, do you mean he deserved the nod over Matsuda?

Even if so that was five years ago now and he is a very inconsistent 9-5 since.

In his previous stab at the OPBF title he was down on all three scorecards and was halted because of the punishment Amagasa was dishing out.

His chin is pretty unreliable, causing him to get dropped even in fights he won (Espino, Abila, Brown) along with the stoppages to Amagasa, Sanabria, Angel, and twice each by Tatakun and Butar.