Saturday February 22 saw a thrilling night of hard hitting boxing at The Venetian Macao as three Olympic gold-medal-winning champions headlined Ring of Gold, the latest boxing spectacular promoted by Top Rank and Sands China Ltd. And in a remarkable bout sheet result, all but one of the nine fights ended in either a Knock Out or Technical Knock Out.
The card featured two-time Olympic gold medallist and three-time Amateur World Champion Zou Shiming; Japan’s gold medallist Ryota Murata; and Russian gold medallist Egor Mekhontsev.
Mexico’s Miguel “Titere” Vazquez met and defeated top-rated contender Denis “Genghis Khan” Shafikov of Russia for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) world lightweight championship.
Also featured were Hong Kong super flyweight sensation Rex “The Wonder Kid” Tso and local sensation “The Macao Kid” Ng Kuok Kun.
And in another successful Macau event for the Philippines, all three Filipino boxers Marvin Sonsona, Harmonito Dela Torre, and Jerwin Ancajas won their fights convincingly.
One of the biggest highlights of the night was undoubtedly Zou Shiming’s KO victory against his opponent Yokthong Kokietgym of Thailand. It was not an easy victory for Zou, who had to wait till Round 7 for Kokietgym to go down, but the Chinese boxing star always looked in control finding numerous opportunities to land a succession of clear head punches. This was Zou’s first KO in professional boxing and gives him a record of 4 victories to zero losses. There is even talk of a possible title fight before the end of the year.
Hong Kong’s Rex Tso and Japanese boxer Mako Matsuyama faced up for one of the toughest fights of the night. Both were fairly evenly matched early on, but by Round 5 Tso was starting to dominate. Matsuyama showed stubborn determination and refused to quit until he was finally KO’d in round 8 after an epic struggle. The victory meant Tso retained his WBC Asia Continental super flyweight title and also gained the WBO Asia Pacific junior bantamweight title.
Japanese Gold Medalist Ryoto Murata had no trouble against Carlos Nascimento of Brazil, being awarded a TKO in Round 4.
Meanwhile, Russian Gold medalist Egor Mekhontsev made easy work of his opponent in the Light Heavyweight division, defeating Atthaporn Jaritram by TKO in just the second round.
And bringing home victory for local boxing fans, Macau boxer Ng Kuok Kun easily defeated his opponent Rocky Alap-Alap, ending the fight with a TKO in Round 3, and showing once again that he is definitely a rising star in the sport and someone to keep a close eye on.
