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A few hours before his title defense, John Riel Casimero looked calm and happy. He answered almost every question from sportscaster Noli Eala with a smile or a laugh.
There will be no time to smile again on Sunday (Philippine time) when Casimero plays his WBO bantamweight title against Duke Micah at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, on the undercard of the middleweight title fight. of the WBC between Jermall Charlo and Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
“I’m very excited. I’ve been here for eight months now. I’m ready to fight,” Casimero told Eala in Filipino on Saturday’s episode of Power and play.
The Filipino boxer was supposed to face Naoya Inoue for a title unification fight, but fell apart when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Instead, he will defend the belt he won by TKO over Zolani Tete last November in England for the first time.
Despite the uncertainty, Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) continued to train day after day until the opportunity to fight Ghana’s Micah arose.
The three-weight division champion can’t wait to get back in the ring and start swinging. But it appears Casimero has little knowledge of Micah, who is undefeated in 24 fights (19 KOs) and the 11th ranked challenger in the WBO at 118 pounds. division.
“He’s a mature fighter who’s also tall,” he said of the 2012 Olympian. “I didn’t get to see a lot of his fights because there aren’t many fights to begin with.”
The truth is that he is facing a dangerous fighter and he knows it. So if he sees an opportunity, he swore he would go for the jugular.
“I can’t see a weakness. He has yet to lose a game,” he said. “If I see an opening, I will definitely go for a knockout.”
Both fighters easily reached 118 pounds. limit at the weigh-in on Saturday morning (Manila time), with Casimero tipping the scales at 117.8 and Micah at 117.3.
After eight months of uninterrupted training, the Filipino fighter oozes confidence. He hopes that his smile tomorrow is because he was victorious.
“I’ll do the best I can. Tomorrow will be a great fight,” he said.
Micah, who possesses a three-inch height and a reach advantage over Casimero, last fought in December, beating Jamiel Rivera at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. This will be his first world title fight.
