Michael “Hot and Spicy” Dasmariñas has nothing to lose but everything to gain when he challenges undefeated International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue next month.
“It’s more than winning the Super Lotto Grand Prize,” said Dasmariñas, who squares off with the Japanese Inoue on June 19 at the Virgins Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. “I need to give Inoue a good fight and I pray for a little luck.”
Inoue, 28, is unbeaten in 20 fights with 17 knockouts. He decimated Australian challenger Jason Moloney in his last fight last October via a seventh technical knockout win at the MGM Grand bubble in Las Vegas to defend his belts.
That makes Dasmariñas, also 28, the underdog with his 30-2-1 win-loss-draw record (20 knockouts).
“I love being the underdog,” Dasmariñas, who hails from Pili in Camarines Sur but has been training in La Union.
BoxRec.com gave Dasmariñas only a minimum 4 percent chance of winning over the Japanese, who got 94 percent to successfully defend his title.
But Dasmariñas, who will travel to the US later this month with Coach Tacy Macalos, said he would do everything to prove everybody wrong.
“I need to improve everything—from my stamina, footwork and fighting style. I will do my best,” he said. “I just have to rely more on my footwork and head movements. He is a strong fighter. So I really need to outbox him to have a chance of winning.”
Dasmariñas beat Thailand’s Artid Bamrungauea via a fifth-round technical knockout last October in Valenzuela City.