Not long after Naoya Inoue’s coronation as the undisputed super bantamweight champion, another possible challenger emerged and tried to talk his way into a title fight against The Monster.
That guy is none other than brash Filipino fighter John Riel Casimero.
A fight between the two went abuzz a couple of years ago but Quadro Alas dropped the ball during the buildup as he failed to make weight in his mandatory title defense against UK’s Paul Butler.
Inoue got turned off by the incident and ended the negotiations with Casimero’s camp.
With the two-division undisputed world champ’s destruction of another Filipino pug in Marlon Tapales last Tuesday, Casimero took the opportunity to beat the drum anew for his possible encounter with the Japanese knockout artist.
In a video posted by a Casimero fan page on Facebook, the blunt boxer flaunted the stacks of cash he won from betting on an Inoue victory via KO.
“Easy money, easy work. Sayang natalo ‘yung five rounds namin pero by knockout, panalo pa rin,” Casimero bragged.
He then proceeded to criticize the performance of Tapales, who went down in the 10th round.
“Hindi niya (Tapales) pinakita na gusto niyang manalo pero maganda naman ‘yung ‘pinakita niyang defense,” Casimero said.
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He also doubled down on how overmatched Tapales was.
“Alam niya first round pa lang na mahihirapan talaga siya kasi si Naoya pagkatapos ng suntok, atras agad tapos sobrang lakas talaga, may lakas talaga siya,” added the fighter from Merida, Leyte.
The former three-division world champion’s next agenda was to promote himself as the only worthy challenger for the unbeaten Inoue.
“Para sa’kin, lahat ng malakas pinataob ko,” Casimero claimed while making the throat-slash gesture.
After bringing up his sensational third-round KO win over South African heavy-hitter Zolani Tete, Casimero took a jab at armchair critics as a parting shot.
“May mga nagsasabi pa the next Manny Pacquiao (si Tapales), sabi ko, ‘Oh shit, walang alam talaga sa boxing ang mga taong (‘to).' Pero ako malayo pa lang, alam na namin ang mangyayari.”
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At the moment, Casimero isn’t holding a major belt. He may need to rack up a few impressive wins before he can land a bout with Inoue.
(PM)