Pete Apolinar (in red gloves) during his December 30, 2023 fight at the SM Seaside City Cebu. | CDN Digital photo / Glendale Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu-based Pete “Prime Time” Apolinar will fight in the undercard of Pedro Taduran-Ginjiro Shigeoka’s world title duel on July 28 in Shiga, Japan.
Apolinar, a former regional title holder, confirmed to CDN Digital that he will be one of the two Filipinos, including Taduran, who are in the fight card.
The Koki Kameda-backed fight card will pit Taduran, the No. 1 contender, for Shigeoka’s International Boxing Federation (IBF) world minimumweight title in the main event.
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Meanwhile, Apolinar will be featured in the co-main event against rising Japanese prospect Matcha Nakagawa in an eight-rounder bout in the featherweight division.
Earlier, Apolinar had a majority draw in his December 30 bout at the SM Seaside City Cebu. He fought Chinese Lingjie Xia for the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) Oriental featherweight title.
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It was supposed to be Apolinar’s statement win after he recently bounced back from back-to-back losses in Japan.
Nonetheless, the 29-year-old San Pablo, Laguna native still has a promising record of 17 wins with 10 knockouts, four defeats, and one draw.
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He currently fights at the Prime Stag Sports Boxing Stable in Talisay City, south Cebu.
Meanwhile, Nakagawa, 30, is also coming off from a draw. It was after he fought countryman Hiroki Hanabusa last March 15 in Tokyo, Japan, but ended up with a split draw in their eight-rounder bout.
Apolinar will be Nakagawa’s first Filipino opponent. He has a 15-2-2 (win-loss-draw) record with six knockouts.
The other featured bouts announced in the Taduran-Shigeoka undercard were Toma Kondo versus Hayate Hanada, Keisuke Iwasaki vs. Daichi Morino, and Lim Seavlam vs. Ryusei Morikawa.