Prince Albert Pagara of Maasin City and his opponent Laryea Gabriel Odoi from Ghana are joined by WBO supervisor Leon Panoncillo and Maasin City Mayor Nacional Nikko Mercado during a press conference for the Pinoy Pride 44 at the Ampil Pensionne in Maasin City.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
Ghanaian boxer Odoi vows to take home Intercontinental junior featherweight title
Maasin City — It took Ghanaian Laryea Gabriel Odoi and his trainer Emmanuel Amponsah 24 hours and three plane transfers to travel from Accra, Ghana to Maasin City, Southern Leyte.
Throughout the trip, they had one thing in mind: the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Intercontinental junior featherweight title.
Odoi on Saturday guns for that crown against hometown bet “Prince” Albert Pagara in the main event of Pinoy Pride 44: “Laban sa Leyte” at the Maasin City Sports Complex here.
In a press conference yesterday at the Ampil Pensionne, Amponsah said they don’t mind the long trip as long as they get what they came for.
“We come here for business. We come here to fight and bring home the title to Ghana,” said Amponsah.
His ward boasts a record of 20 victories with 14 knockouts along with three defeats and two draws. The trainer is confident his ward can pull off an upset.
“Pagara (Albert) has not faced an opponent like Odoi before,” he said.
Pagara is from Maasin City. He has a record of 29 wins (20 by knockouts) and one defeat.
Odoi doesn’t seem to be fazed about fighting in Pagara’s home town.
“I will show everyone that Pagara will lose. I can’t be knocked down; I’m the one who’s going to knock him out. I am confident that I can win and take home the belt with me,” said Odoi, who is fighting outside Ghana for the first time in his career.
The 24-year-old Pagara admitted he hasn’t seen much of Odoi, but has a gameplan prepared.
“I admit I haven’t seen his fight tapes so expect that in the first few rounds, I will be sizing him up, before I engage him completely,” said Pagara.
ALA Promotions International matchmaker Edito Villamor said Pagara is expected to give his all in order to snatch the WBO regional title and improve his current number nine rank in the WBO junior featherweight division, whose current champion is African Isaac Dogboe.
Pagara’s older brother, Jason, (40-3-1, 25KOs) will fight Indonesian Wellem Reyk (19-17-4, 5KOs) for a non-title bout in the undercard while ALA Boxing Gym’s knockout artist, Joe “Santino” Santisima, (15-2-0, 13KOs) will take on Thai Likit Chane (16-5-0, 10KOs) for the WBO Oriental junior featherweight title in the co-main event.
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