John Riel Casimero Victorious In ESPN5 Card

Former world champion John Riel Casimero’s journey back to title contention saw him return to the Philippines for the first time since 2017.

Casimero scored a sixth-round stoppage victory over Kenya Yamashita to win his second straight fight in the main event of a boxing card in Quezon City that was streamed internationally on ESPN5. 

The former world champion easily found his best punch of the fight with the uppercut, which Yamashita was unable to defend throughout the fight. Casimero hurt Yamashita numerous times, but instead of clinching and defending, Yamashita chose to engage the former champion, which led to Casimero winning many of their exchanges. 

The 30-year-old Casimero was head hunting from the start of the bout and did enough damage to cause Yamashita to bleed from his nose. Casimero dropped Yamashita early in the sixth round and once Yamashita recovered, Casimero landed an uppercut, which forced the referee to put a stop to the fight. It was Casimero’s first win in the Philippines since the summer of 2017 and has won two straight since losing to Jonas Sultan.

Also on the card was a featherweight matchup between Dave Penalosa and Marcos Cardenas for the vacant WBO Oriental title. Like Casimero did in his fight, Penalosa dominated his opponent throughout the fight, leading to Penalosa stopping Cardenas in the fourth round to win the title. The round started with Penalosa landing a straight left hand to drop Cardenas. Cardenas was dropped once more later in the round and the fight was ultimately stopped after Penalosa sent Cardenas to the canvas a third time with a 1-2 combination to the body.