Boxing News Boxing News
Vanuatu national hero Kali Jacobus will defend his UBO World Super Middleweight title on Saturday April 9 at the Ex-FOL Omnisport Stadium in Port Vila, Vanuatu against former WBC Mundo Hispano Champion Rocky Junior from Brazil.
The fight will be staged by promoter Wesley Rasu with the support of the Vanuatu Government.
Vanuatu, a tiny island state with a population of only 221.000 people, located in Oceania between Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, is going boxing-crazy these days, resulting in more than 600 people, including numerous TV, Newspaper and Radio reporters, waiting at the airport for the arrival of the Brazilian team Wednesday afternoon.
After making a speech to the huge throng of boxing fans, Rocky Junior (11-1, 6 KOs) was taken on a tour around Port Vila in a convertible car to greet more fans standing by the wayside, cheering and taking photos, and to make TV and radio appearances before finally being allowed to rest after a forty hour journey.
Very few boxing promotions are held in Vanuatu, and currently the country has only three active professional boxers, but when Kali Jacobus (14-3, 10 KOs) fights the island is at a standstill, and everybody talks boxing.
Light Heavyweight Erick Wassab (1-0, 1 KO), who will be in the only professional undercard fight against Fijian Temo Kolitapa (2-4-1, 1 KO), is also gaining massive popularity, and the show has long been a sell-out with tickets snatched away in only a few hours. Four amateur fights will make up the rest of the bill.
The Friday afternoon weigh-in and press conference is expected to be another massive event with hundreds of fans attending, and reporters literally standing in line for interviews.
Jacobus won the UBO title in October 2009 when he stopped Thailand’s Plaisakda Singwancha in two rounds, and will be making his second defense against Junior. Extreme weather conditions, such as very powerful hurricanes, which are sometimes part of life in Vanuatu, prevented Jacobus from making a planned defense earlier this year, but everything looks to be set for Saturday.
