Casimero stays unrepentant

Unbeknownst to his diehard followers, Johnriel Casimero has a long history of troubling weight issues.

In fact, his latest escapade in Yokohama over the weekend was his fourth time failing to make weight.

Though he got away with it by scoring a savage first-round knockout of Saul Sanchez in a scheduled 10-rounder that saw him unable to make the contracted 122-lb limit, Casimero was not spared by the Japan Boxing Commission which suspended him for one year.

To make matters worse, Casimero even said during the post-fight interview that since the Sanches bout was a non-title affair, it was no big deal coming in overweight.

More than ten years ago in Cebu, Casimero was stripped of his International Boxing Federation light-flyweight title when he weighed in more than five pounds over the division limit of 108 lbs.

As a saving grace, Casimero knocked out his foe, Colombian Mauricio Fuentes, in one round.

Casimero did’t seem to learn from his shortcomings as he failed to attend the weighin of his defense of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight title against Paul Butler in December 2021 in Dubai.

His camp said the fighter suffered from gastritis although it was suspected that he was having difficulties going down to 118.

The fight was reset for April 2022 in Liverpool, England and the British Boxing

Board of Control scrapped the fight after it was learned — through Casimero’s YouTube channel — that the Filipino boxer was using sauna to cut weight in the final days leading to the weighin.

Apparently, the use of sauna to cut weight is a strict medical policy in Great Britain and WBO had to strip Casimero of the crown for violating the rule.

Following the JBC’s move, Casimero’s dream of facing Naoya Inoue is becoming even more difficult to stage.