Jerusalem ends ‘Japanese curse’

MANILA, Philippines: At least for now, the ‘Japanese curse’ against Filipino boxers is over.

Melvin Jerusalem put an end to the Japanese’ mastery over Pinoy boxers after dethroning Yudai Shigeoka via split decision in their World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight crown match at the International Conference Hall in Nagoya, Japan on March 31.

Melvin Jerusalem SANMAN BOXING PHOTO 

Fittingly, Philippine boxing has risen above the Japanese on Easter Sunday in the Land of the Rising Sun.

After knocking down Shigeoka twice, one each in the third and sixth round, Jerusalem, 30, got two judges scoring identical 114-112 cards for him as Shigeoka had one judge favor him at 114-113.

Shigeoka tasted his first defeat in nine bouts.

Jerusalem, who hails from Bukidnon, improved to 22-3 with 12 knockouts as he ended the Japanese jinx Filipino boxers suffered in their title matches in Japan while also becoming the first and lone Filipino world champ in three months.

Marlon Tapales was the last and lone Filipino world titlist, yielding his World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) crowns to Naoya Inoue in their super bantamweight unification match last December.

It was one of the notable Filipino boxing losses to the Japanese with Inoue starring in two more after defeating ‘The Filipino Flash’ twice — a unanimous decision in November 2019 and a second round knockout triumph in June 2022.

Other than Donaire and Tapales’s defeats, Jerwin Ancajas also lost his WBA bantamweight title fight against Inoue’s brother Takuma in February.

And right before Jerusalem’s fight, another Pinoy pug fell prey to another Japanese boxer as Jake Amparo suffered a second round knockout to Yudai’s brother Ginjiro Shigeoka in their IBF minimumweight co-main event clash.

If anything, Jerusalem is now building his own curse against Japanese boxers as Yudai became his second victim from the Land of the Rising Sun.

The first Japanese that Jerusalem defeated was Masataka Taniguchi in January last year in Osaka, where he scored a second round knockout to win his previous WBA minimumweight title.