Philippine light welterweight champion Mark Jason Melligen is en route to Tijuana where he will battle 31 year old Fabian “El Lobo” Luque who has a record of 21-8-4 with 12 knockouts on Saturday- Sunday, Manila Time.

Longtime Cebu resident Tony Martin who has been handling Melligen’s training at the Top Rank gym in Las Vegas that ALA boxing gym trainer Edito “Ala” Villamor had arrived in the US to work Melligen’s corner in the fight against Luque.

Although the Mexican lost his last two fights they were against top-class, undefeated opponents including WBA No.1 ranked Dimitriy Salita who has a record of 30-0-1 with 16 knockouts.

Luque lost to Salita by a 5^th round TKO on February 28, 2008 and then lost by a 2^nd round TKO to undefeated Dierry Jean of Canada who has a record of 16-0 with 10 knockouts and is considered one of Canada’s best prospects. That fight took place on October 4, 2008.

The 23 year old southpaw Melligen has a record of 14-1 with 10 knockouts and after being signed up by promoter Bob Arum, the hard-hitting southpaw started training at the Top Rank gym in Las Vegas . He had previously trained at the Mayweather gym also in Las Vegas where Floyd Mayweather Jr had watched him train and was quite impressed.

Melligen made his US debut with a 5^th round TKO over Gerardo Cesar Prieto on March 7, 2009 and followed it up with a unanimous eight round decision over tough Ramon Montano who had earlier dropped a split decision to then WBC lightweight champion David Diaz who in turn lost his title in a 9^th round demolition by the “Hero of Asia” Manny Pacquiao.

In preparation for the Luque fight, Melligen sparred with Argentina ’s Marcos Rene Maidana (25-1, 24KO’s) who is scheduled to face undefeated Victor Ortiz for the WBA junior welterweight interim title on June 27.

Martin reported that Melligen “more than held his own against Maidana who is really strong and who tries to load up with power shots all the time.” However, the much-improved defense of Melligen and his good movement prevented Maidana from tagging him.

Martin noted that the young Filipino was becoming more confident and it showed in his sparring and training in Las Vegas .

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