NEWLY crowned IBF light flyweight king Milan “El Metodico” Melindo wants to be an undisputed world champion. That’s why this early, the ALA Boxing Gym star is already planning to unify all the titles in his division.
Melindo (36-2-0, 13KOs) arrived from Tokyo, Japan last Tuesday night following his stunning first round TKO victory of erstwhile champion Akira Yaegashi (25-6-0, 13KOs).
The 29-year old Melindo, a native of Cagayan de Oro City is planning to oust the three Japanese world champions in his division namely WBO light flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka (9-0-0,5KOs), WBA titlist Ryoichi Taguchi (25-2-2, 11KOs) and WBC king Ken Shiro (10-0-0, 5KOs).
“I am ready to accept any fights available,” said Melindo in a press conference held at the Saint Mark Hotel last Tuesday evening. “I will focus on unifying all four titles in this division to prove everyone that I can rule this division.”
Melindo also turned down the possibility of defending his title against another Filipino in reference to the challenge thrown by former WBA light flyweight king Randy Petalcorin (26-2-1, 19KOs).
Melindo brushed aside Petalcorin’s challenge since he believes that the Philippines does not have enough world champions at the moment and pitting Filipino boxers against each other hinders the chance of producing more champions.
“I want to avoid that because we only have very few world champions and we will only be killing our chances of producing more world champions if we fight each other for one title. But I am willing to defend my title if a Filipino boxer is mandated to challenge me,” added Melindo.
Petalcorin is currently ranked No. 4 by the IBF with the top two spots currently left vacant.
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