CEBU-BASED boxer Neil John Tabanao absorbed a unanimous decision loss to Russian Evgeny Smirnov last Saturday evening in Moscow, Russia.
Trainer Brix Flores said Tabanao did enough to win the fight, but they were surprised to see Smirnov walking home with the victory.
“I believe that we won the bout, but the fight went full eight-round route so we already expected that there was going to be a home town decision. Our best chance of winning was to score a knockout.” Flores said.
Flores said Tabanao, a native of Panabo City, Davao del Norte, left the ring unscathed.
“At least, Neil John stepped out of the ring with an unblemished face. We were confused because the Russian boxer couldn’t hit Neil John, but we lost the fight. We did not listen to the scores of the judges because they announced it in Russian language,” said Flores.
Flores said Tabanao’s best moment came in the fourth round when he hurt Smirnov by combinations.
Tabanao now has three losses to go with 13 wins, nine by knockouts. Smirnov remained unbeaten in eight fights with two knockout victories.
It was the second straight loss for Tabanao, who bowed to Ghana’s Isaac Dogboe for the WBO Africa, WBO Oriental and WBC Youth Silver feather weight titles in Accra, Ghana.
The 22-year-old Tabanao is one of the three boxers of Thai boxing promoter Naris Singwangcha who was sent to Russia for separate fights.
Adones Aguelo (27W-14L-2D-19KOs) and Marco Demecillo (22W-5L-1D-17KOs) will fight undefeated Russian boxers Pavel Malikov (9W-0L-0D-3KOs) and Valery Tretyalov (7W-0L-0D-3KOs), respectively.
Slated Dec. 17 in Yekatinburg, Russia, Aguelo and Malikov will fight for the WBC Asian Lightweight title. The Demecillo-Tretyalov will be an eight-round non-title fight.