Bacolod City’s Merlito “Tiger” Sabillo experienced the first loss in his career when he surrendered his WBO minimumweight title to Mexican Francisco “Titanium” Rodriguez via 10th-round technical knockout yesterday in Monterrey, Mexico.Rodriguez took advantage of his homecourt edge and controlled the match from the opening bell en route to the victory.
The Mexican improved to 14-2-0 (win-loss-draw) with 10 knockouts while Sabillo dropped to 23-1-1 with 12 KOs.
“You got to give credit to Rodriguez, he fought hard to win,” said ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer.
Sabillo is one of just three current Filipino world champions. The others are WBO Light Flyweight title Donnie “Ahas” Nietes, who is Sabillo’s stable mate in ALA Boxing Gym, and IBF Junior flyweight champion Johnriel “Quadro Alas” Casimero.
“Merlito came prepared but we got to accept the fact that he lost. I’ll talk to the rest of the team when they come back for the future plans of Merlito. Hopefully, he can bounce back,” Aldeguer said.
Rodriguez pounded Sabillo early with combinations that sent the latter to the corner. He connected on hard hooks to the body. Sabillo bounced back in the second round by launching his own set of combinations that resulted in an epic exchange but Rodriguez was more accurate with his punches.
Sabillo was floored in the second round after being caught by a straight but was able to beat the count and survive the round. Rodriguez continued his dominance inside the ring in the following rounds with Sabillo struggling to hold on.
In the final round, Rodriguez went for the kill by unleashing another set of combinations, prompting the referee to stop the fight.