FIGHT IS ON

Kenneth Llover had a bit of a scare Saturday when he came in overweight for his 10-round bantamweight brawl with Panamanian Luis Concepcion at Winford Resort Casino.

But after a short while, Llover came back and was cleared to fight after stepping in at 117.8 pounds, making his clash with Concepcion Sunday night a go.

Unlike his fancied Filipino foe, Concepcion easily conquered the scales by tipping in at a flat 117 pounds, giving him the chance to wolf down a plateful of sandwiches, burger sliders and baked goodies from the buffet stand as Llover was under immense pressure trying to get rid of 400 grams after scaling in at 118.4 earlier.

The undefeated Llover carefully stepped on the scales naked while a white towel had to be placed in front so as not to expose him.

It was only after officials from the supervising Games and Amusements Board cleared him to fight that Llover and his team managed to have a sigh of relief.

There are four other fights on tap in the card that will begin at 5 p.m. The main event will start at 7 p.m. as it will be shown live on One Sports channel.

Although there is no title at stake, Llover is treating the Concepcion duel as part of his buildup for a world title elimination match in Japan on 12 October.

His Japanese promoter Koki Kameda was in attendance during the pre-fight ritual and confirmed that he is indeed setting up Llover in October.

“If there are no injuries, like cuts, then that fight is going to take place,” said Kameda, who is hoping too that the October fight will be won handily so Llover can shoot for a world title in late-December.

Now that Llover has cleared a major roadblock, expect him to come out smoking against Concepcion much the same way he did when he fought in Japan.

Logging a total of just two rounds in his last two bouts, Llover risks his undefeated 14-0 win-loss card with nine knockouts against a seemingly well-conditioned Concepcion, who enters the ring with a 40-11 slate with 29 knockouts.

Gerry Peñalosa, who runs Llover’s affairs, insists that it is imperative that the Cavite-based puncher wins convincingly.

“I have grand plans for this kid,” Peñalosa said.

But Concepcion swears he is in the country to ruin Llover’s plans.

“Vine aqui para ganar (I came here to win). No vine aqui para perder (I didn’t come here to lose),” he said.