February 23, 2006
CEBU, PHILIPPINES-WBC#10/WBA#12 ranked Randy Suico (24-2, 21 KOs), a hard-hitting Filipino, has officially renounced his 130-pound belt of the OPBF (Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation) to move up to the lightweight category. Suico, called Komong Bato (Hands of Stone) in the Philippines, kept his regional belt on five occasions, all by knockout, during his four-year reign since April 2002, when he stopped Korean Sungho Yuh (a first-round KO victim by Jose Luis Castillo for the WBC 135-pound belt). Having already been a full-fledged lightweight for more than a year, Suico kept struggling to make the 130-pound limit since he had the prestigious OPBF belt and then rated so highly as #2 by the WBC. Compatriot Manny Pacquiao’s continual success in the same division and his defeats by Mzonke Fana (by a split decision in an eliminator to decide the official challenger in 2004) and ex-IBF light kingpin Javier Jauregui (by a majority nod in Los Angeles last year), partly due to his another battle to make the weight, eventually shattered his dream to fight for the 130-pound belt. The still 26-year-old Suico is a tall and muscular puncher with a killer instinct, and people wondered why he could make the superfeather limit. Lately he looked sluggish despite his four-round demolition of ex-world challenger Ryuhei Sugita to keep his OPBF belt on February 5, his management finally realized his serious weight problem to say No Mas to stay in this class. The iron-chinned and hard-punching Filipino may become a sort of Ceferino Garcia with a bolo punch if he should campaign in the US, or aims to win his second OPBF belt in the lightweight division.
(2-23-06)