By Ronnie Nathanielsz

WBC No. 3 ranked Jonathan “Lightning” Taconing battles former WBO light flyweight champion Ramon Garcia Hirales in Mexico this Saturday in a ten round bout in which he risks a mandated title eliminator for the crown held by Mexico’s Pedro Guevara.

Guevara is set to defend his title against  WBC Asian Boxing Council light flyweight champion Richard Claveras in Sinaloa, Mexico on April 11 despite the fact that the Filipino is ranked only No. 26 by the WBC.

The 28 year old Taconing has won seven straight fights and has a record of 20-2-1 with 17 knockouts. He is coming off a win over Indonesia’s Oscar Raknafa who retired in the 4th round of a scheduled ten round bout last December 21, 2014.

The talented southpaw won the vacant Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation title with an 11 th round TKO over Virgilio Silvana on March 25, 2015.

In a heartbreaking technical draw in a title fight against Thailands’s Kompayak Porpramook when he had the WBC champion in trouble in his corner when South Korean referee Jae-Bong Kim stopped the bout because of a small cut suffered by Porpramook in an accidental clash of heads in the fourth round for which he deducted a point from Taconing in the fifth round, creating a howl of protest from the Filipino’s manager Johnny Elorde who raised the issue with then WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman.

This reporter also spoke to Don Jose after reviewing the fight tape and after Sulaiman created a panel to review the tape he suspended referee Jae-Bing Kin for one year.

The 32 year old Ramon Garcia Hirales, the identical twin brother of another former champion Raul “Rayito” Garcia has a record of 20-5-1 with 12 knockouts with one of those defeats being against Donnie “Ahas” Nietes who grabbed Hirales’ WBO light flyweight crown with a unanimous twelve round decision at the University of St. La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod City on October 8, 2011.

In his last fight Ramon Garcia Hirales dropped a lopsided twelve round decision in a clash for the vacant IBF title against Javier Mendoza, also of Mexico, on September 20, 2014. 

Taconing and his trainer Eddie Ballaran along with newly crowned WBO Asia Pacific super bantamweight champion Juan Miguel “Migs” Elorde, son of manager Johnny Elorde,  arrived in Mexico after a grueling two-day trip but Taconing expressed confidence he can handle the jetlag as well as the hostile crowd.