2 Pinoys win in Pacquiao undercard, Elorde loses

Dennis Laurente defeats Holloway by UD

Dennis Laurente and Richie Mepranum defeated their respective American opponents while Juan Martin "Bai" Elorde lost his first international fight in three of the undercard bouts featured in the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito 12-round title showdown at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.



Laurente opened up Saturday's (Sunday in manila) event with a unanimous decision (UD) win over Rashad Holloway of Raleigh, North Carolina.



All three judges saw the eight-round fight in favor of the Filipino world welterweight title hopeful with scores of 77-75, 79-73 and 78-74 against Holloway, a former sparring partner of Pacquiao.



Laurente improved to 36 wins (18 by knockout), three losses and five draws while Holloway dropped to 11-2-2.



Mepranum followed shortly with a split decision victory against Anthony Villareal of Peris, California in their six-round flyweight match.



Mepranum, a constituent of the fighting congressman of Sarangani province Pacquiao, hiked his ring record to 23 wins (5 KOs), two losses (1 KO) and 1 draw.

Mepranum wins by split decision over Villareal

But a third Pinoy fighter, Elorde, the grandson of Filipino boxing legend Gabriel "Flash" Elorde, lost his debut in the international stage when he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Houston native Angel Rodriguez.



The four-round lightweight fight ended with Rodriguez compiling scores of 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37.



It was Elorde's first loss in 12 matches. He previously won four of his 11 matches by way of KO. Rodrigues improved to 5-4-2.



Pacquiao takes on Margarito for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) super welterweight title in the main event of a heavy 88-round card.





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