by Ronnie Nathanielsz

In a battle of undefeated fighters, 20-year-old Filipino John Vincent Moralde stunned favored 23 year old Australian  Brayd Smith to win the WBC Asia Boxing Council Continental featherweight title in Smith’s hometown of Toowoomba, Queensland on Saturday.

It was Moralde’s first fight abroad but the promising youngster who is handled by youthful Jim Claude Manangquil  showed no signs of nerves as he out-boxed Smith who was a noted puncher but couldn’t land a big shot while Moralde nailed the more experienced Aussie with some excellent combinations.

Moralde received the nod of all three judges by wide margins of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93.

Moralde won the vacant World Boxing Foundation International super bantamweight title with a ten round unanimous decision over Indonesia’s Jason Butar Butar on Septeber13, 2014 after earlier capturing the Philippine Boxing Federation super bantamweight title with a 2nd round TKO of Ronerex Dalut on July 2, 2014 in General Santos City.

With the win Moralde improved to 12-0 with 6 knockouts while Smith suffered his first setback to drop to 17-0 with 10 knockouts.

Smith was coming off a 3rd round TKO victory over Anshori  Anhar Pitulay last December 5, 2014.

The Aussie puncher had previously scored a 1st round knockout of Filipino Gabriel Altarejos in a clash for the vacant WBC Youth featherweight Silver title on October 4, 2013.