ANOTHER Saludar is in line to challenge for a world championship by the end of the month.
Froilan Saludar shoots for the World Boxing Organization flyweight belt held by Sho Kimura of Japan on July 27 in the Qingdao province of China.
The title fight comes two weeks after Froilan’s younger brother, Vic Saludar dethroned Japanese Ryuya Yamanaka of Japan to capture the WBO minimumweight crown with a unanimous decision win in Kobe.
Veteran trainer Nonoy Neri, who has known the Saludar brothers from Polomolok, Cotabato Del Sur since their younger days, believe Froilan has a very good chance of following the footsteps of his younger sibling.
“Skills-wise, tingin ko mas angat si Froilan kaya tingin ko maganda ang tsansa niya manalo ng title,” said the long-time assistant trainer of boxing great Manny Pacquiao.
But Neri said he also never doubted Vic will win over Yamanaka after watching on live stream the July 13 fight in Japan while he was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Pacquiao-Lucas Matthysse world welterweight championship.
“Match kasi yung Japanese sa style ni Saludar kaya alam ko kaya niyang talunin yung Hapon,” said Neri.
The 27-year-old Saludar dropped Yamanaka with a straight right to the head at the one minute mark of the seventh round on the way to hacking out a unanimous decision win on scores of 116-111, 115-112, and 117-110.
Saludar improved his record to 18-3, with 10 KOs in his second attempt at a world title following his earlier failed bid against Kosei Tanaka also of Japan for the same WBO title belt in 2015.
Froilan meanwhile, carries a record of 28-2 with 19 KOs in his first ever bid for a major world crown.
Kimura, 29, is making the second defense of the title he won over two-time Olympic champion Zou Shiming via an 11th round stoppage. His record stands at 16-1 with 9 KOs.
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