IT won’t be a white Christmas for Randy Petalcorin as the Filipino failed anew in his bid to win a world title Monday night.
Petalcorin suffered a fourth round stoppage against unbeaten Kenshiro Teraji of Japan, who retained his World Boxing Council (WBC) light-flyweight title at the Arena in Yokohama.
The 27-year-old native of Davao Del Sur never got untrack for most of the fight was hit with a vicious right to the midsection at the 1:08 mark of the fourth from which he never recovered as referee Frank Garza ordered a stop to the one-sided bout.
Petalcorin, who fell to a 31-4-1 record with 23 KOs and was a late replacement for the injured Felix Alvarado, went down thrice in the third round that signaled the beginning of the end for the Filipino challenger.
It was the second failed title bid for Petalcorin, who lost by technical knockout against Alvarado in their International Boxing Federation (IBF) light-flyweight match in October of last year.
Alvarado was originally set to face Teraji in a unification bout, but the Nicaraguan fell ill last month that prompted a last-minute replacement in Petalcorin.
Teraji successfully retained his WBC crown for the seventh time and raised his record to a perfect 17-0, with 10 KOs.
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