Aston ‘Mighty’ Palicte’s dominating win against Mexican former interim World Boxing Association (WBA) world light flyweight champion Jose Alfredo Rodriguez in Texas last December 9 had earned the Filipino warrior a world title eliminator fight next year.
The 26-year old Palicte of Bago City, Negros Occidental, scored a fifth round technical knockout against Rodriguez to defend his North American Boxing Federation (NABF) super flyweight crown in just his second fight in the United States.
His impressive victory caught the attention of boxing bigwigs as he is now being groomed to fight Chinese boxing superstar Rex ‘Wonder Kid’ Tso (22-0-0, 13KOs) for a World Boxing Organization (WBO) world title eliminator early next year. The winning boxer will then face reigning WBO world super flyweight champion Naoya Inoue (14-0-0, 12KOs) of Japan.
Palicte’s emphatic victory against Rodriguez (32-7, 19 KOs) improved his record to 24 wins with 20 knockouts and two defeats. Palicte is now on a four-fight winning streak.
Tso, 30, meanwhile, has won via knockouts in his last ten bouts. His most recent fight was last October against Japanese Kohei Kono where he defended his WBO International super flyweight strap. He won the bout via a seventh round technical decision. The bout was stopped after Tso’s left eye was completely shut due to accidental head butt in the earlier rounds. The decision was arrived at after consulting the scorecards of the three judges.
There is no exact date yet for Palicte and Tso’s world eliminator showdown but it is tentatively scheduled in January of February next year.