MANILA – Jay-R Raquinel of the Philippines failed to add the WBC Silver flyweight championship to his title collection after a unanimous decision loss to Chinese fighter Wulan Tuolehazi in Changsha.
Aside from failing to move a step closer to a world championship bout, the Bacolod City native also saw himself suffering from his first defeat in the Saturday match.
Prior to the defeat Raquinel had two successful bouts in defense of his OPBF flyweight title against Japanese fighters Keisuke Nakayama and Shun Kosaka earlier this year.
Raquinel was aggressive early and gave Tuolehazi some trouble with his volume punching. The Chinese pug picked up his pace in the third round onwards and stunned the Filipino with a right hand lead.
In the fifth round Raquinel rocked Tuolehazi and landed a barrage of punches that sent the Chinese fighter to the ropes. Since then it was all Tuolehazi as he pounded Raquinel with his pinpoint accuracy.
Tuolehazi continued to attack Raquinel in the eighth round with shots to the body before flooring the Filipino in the final round and solidifying his decision win with the scores 116-111, 117-111, 116-111.
The 21-year-old Raquinel saw his slate drop to 10-1-1 (win-loss-draw) including seven knockout wins while Tuolehazi improved to 9-3-1 with four stoppage victories.
Over in Singapore, IBO world bantamweight champion Michael Dasmariñas settled for a split draw with Manyo Plange of Ghana in their nontitle bout./PN
