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| Ross Del Rosario/Wazzup Pilipinas |
By Ivan Saldajeno
QUEZON CITY--The first WSOF Global fight card in the Philippines will push through as scheduled as 19 of the 20 fighters involved in the said event made weight during the official weigh-in at the Gateway Atrium on Friday even as the MMA outfit had to make a late amendment to keep a match from getting canceled.
The main event, the WSOF Global heavyweight championship match between champion Evgeny Erokhin and challenger Richard Odoms, would be interesting to watch as Odoms tipped the scales at 262 pound and Erokhin came in at 230.
The other title fight in the card, the UGB featherweight title match between Ahmed Mujtaba and Neil Laraño, was also given the green light as both exactly made the 145-pound limit.
On the other hand, the originally scheduled lightweight match between Jessdan Dela Peña and Kelvin Ong became a de facto welterweight clash as Dela Peña came in at 162 pounds as per an earlier weigh-in also on Friday, way above the 155-pound limit.
Ong, meanwhile, came in five pounds inside the limit in the said private weigh-in at 150 but had to immediately add bulk just for the fight to push through. He entered the final weigh-in at 156, making the fight official.
In the catchweight bout, Ong will claim half of Dela Peña's fight purse as the latter's sanction for not making the contracted weight.
Meanwhile, only 19 actually showed up in the open-to-public final weigh-in as Mario Sismundo got stuck in EDSA traffic, forcing him to cancel his appearance.
However, in the said earlier weigh-in, Sismundo, who became well-known for being a doppelganger for Manny Pacquiao, tipped the scales at 145 pounds, making him eligible for his featherweight battle.
His opponent in the co-main event, Keremuaili Maimaitituoheti, made it to the weigh-in and came in at 140 pounds.
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