Araneta bringing ‘bomb’to world title fight

In less than three weeks, another Filipino fighter will climb a Tokyo gym in the pursuit of becoming a world champion.

The guy’s name is Christian “The Bomb” Araneta, a hard-hitting light-flyweight who faces Thanongsak Simsri of Thailand for the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) throne on 19 June at the 4,200-seater Ota City General Gymnasium.

If victorious, Araneta will join Pedro Taduran and Melvin Jerusalem as the country’s world champions while hoping that a new batch would join the cast in the coming months with several highly-rated punchers ramping up their training in Las Vegas.

To rev up for the crafty Simsri, the 30-year-old southpaw from Cebu City, worked on three aspects: speed, timing and accuracy.

“We already know that he already has immense punching power so we’re focused on training these three things,” said Omega Boxing Gym PR man Dodong Diego Bandido, stressing that Araneta has been advised to go easy on punching himself out.

“He’s had surgery on his left wrist and we want to minimize the risk of a re-injury,” he added.

Araneta fights out of Omega Boxing Gym and currently holds a 25-2 win-loss card with 20 knockouts.

Rated No. 2 in the IBF’s 108-pound division, Simsri packs a 38-1 record with 34 knockouts.

Team Araneta, also made up of chief trainer Julius “Doc J” Junco, will fly to Japan on 6 June in time for a round of sparring session with former world champion Kenshiro Teraji, the two-belt world flyweight champion.

Bandido said Araneta’s gym work with Teraji, the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association 112-pound champion, is set for 9 June.

Araneta and his handlers were supposed to leave for Japan on Thursday but visa issues delayed their trip.

Still, Araneta will have enough time to get used to the local conditions in the Japanese capital.

And with a solid crew taking care of his needs, everything points to a coronation on fight night unless of course Simsri comes up with the perfect gameplan that will neutralize Araneta’s paralyzing power.

Simsri better be ready as hell because if he isn’t, a bomb’s going to explode and tear him into bits and pieces.