CEBU CITY, Philippines—Omega Boxing Gym’s top gun, Christian “The Bomb” Araneta and his trainer Julius Erving Junco are set to leave for London, South Africa on Friday, April 9, 2021, for his world-title eliminator fight against African Sevinathi Nontshinga.
The 26-year-old Araneta, the pride of Borbon town, northern Cebu, recently wrapped up his smooth and productive training camp at the Omega Boxing Gym in Mandaue City.
Junco has nothing but praises for his prized ward’s performance in training.
“Christian is ready. On weight rami karon and fight na lang among gipaabot,” Junco told CDN Digital.
(We are on the right weight and we’re just waiting for the fight.)
It will be Araneta’s second crack for a world title eliminator. His first international bout and first world title eliminator in 2019 for the same division came up short when he lost to Mexican Daniel Valladares via fourth-round technical knockout (TKO) in Monterey, Mexico.
Read: Knocking out ‘The Bomb’ is easy to say, difficult to do, says trainer
Araneta has moved on. According to Junco, Araneta is now more matured in terms of boxing skills and style inside the ring.
“Para sa kani nga training camp, na develop gyud namo ug maayo ang maturity sa iyahang game. Mao gyud na need nato para ni Christian (Araneta),” added Junco.
(In this training camp, we really developed the maturity of his game. This is really what we need for Christian.)
After suffering his only defeat to Valladares, Araneta came back with guns blazing, winning two straight matches against fellow Filipinos Richard Rosales and Roland Jay Biendima in 2020.
Araneta has a record of 19 wins (15 by knockouts) and one defeat.
Meanwhile, Nontshinga has a clean 9-0-0 (win-loss-draw) slate with all nine wins coming by knockouts. However, he has not fought a foreign boxer in his career.
The 22-year old African, who is the current IBF international light flyweight champion, has only fought fellow Africans.
Araneta is currently ranked No. 4 in the IBF light flyweight division while Nontshinga is No.3. There are no current No. 1 and No. 2 contenders in the division.
The current title holder of the IBF’s light flyweight division is Nicaraguan Felix Alvarado.
/bmjo