By Danrex Tapdasan

The All-Filipino super-fight between Drian “Gintong Kamao” Francisco (20-1- 1, 16 KOs) and Michael “Bruce Lee” Domingo (41-15-2, 19 KOs) will take place at the Philippines’ premier business city of Makati, specifically at the Makati Coliseum, on a Friday night, Sept. 23.

Francisco, a native of Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, will figure in his first fight at the bantamweight division after fighting most of his career in the super flyweight class. This fighter, managed and promoted by Elmer Anuran of Agoncillo, Batangas, lost in his latest fight on May 1 to Tepparith Singwancha via unanimous decision in a contest where the Filipino lost his WBA interim title at the Kingdom of Thailand.

Once touted as the next Filipino great boxing champion, Francisco is a crowd-pleasing power puncher who had the rare feat of beating 2 highly-ranked pugilists from Panama (Roberto Vasquez and Ricardo Nuñez) in consecutive fights. Boxing website boxrec considers him as the No. 1 super flyweight in the Philippines and No. 8 in the world.

The Libac, Sultan Kudarat born Domingo, on the other hand, is coming off a win over Indonesian Richard Samosir last July 30 in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu when the visiting boxer quit on his stool at the end of the 6th round in a fight scheduled for 10 rounds.

The father and son tandem of Antonio and Michael Aldeguer is steering Domingo’s boxing life under the banner of Cebu-based ALA Boxing Promotions. In his 58-fight boxing career, Domingo fought 3 former world champions, namely Venezuelan former 2-division titlist Jorge Linares, Thai former WBA bantamweight Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym and former WBO bantamweight champion Ratanachai Sor Vorapin.

Unknown to many, Michael has fought Filipino Jimrex Jaca twice. Jaca is now campaigning in the welterweight and light middleweight divisions. Interestingly, “Bruce Lee” has never weighed less than 116 lbs. in his almost 12 years of being a professional boxer. In this Sept. 23 clash, he will fight a natural super flyweight in Francisco for the first time in Domingo’s career.

The undercard fights are as follows:

Niño Magboo vs. Rene Bestudio, 124 lbs. (10 rounds)

Lolito Sonsona vs. Ryan Tampus, 108 lbs. (10 rounds)

Jun Doliguez vs. Sonny Gonzales, 127 lbs. (10 rounds)

Oliver Gregorio vs. Mel Alquezar, 105 lbs. (6 rounds)

Mac Canecio vs. Reymark Calumpad, 105 lbs. (4 rounds)

The writer is a lawyer by profession, a Professional Boxing Referee and Judge from the Philippines accredited by the Association of Boxing Commissions [ABC], as well as a part of the pool of officials licensed by the World Boxing Organization [WBO] and International Boxing Federation [IBF]