ALA Promotions kicks off 2016 with a big card on Feb. 27 at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Cebu titled “Stars of the Future,” headlined by unbeaten super bantamweight Prince Albert Pagara and featherweight Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo, along with KJ Cataraja and unbeaten minimum weight Melvin Jerusalem.
Pagara will face former International Boxing Federation super flyweight champion Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr., the 24-year-old Mexican southpaw with a record of 20-4-1 with 9 knockouts, who battled Cesar Juarez and lost by a 12-round unanimous decision in a World Boxing Organization International title fight.
Juarez subsequently engaged five-division world champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire in a brutal fight for the vacant WBO 122-pound title, which the Filipino won after dropping Juarez twice in the fourth round. Juarez made an unbelievable turnaround and engaged Donaire in a slugfest in the second half of the fight, showing no signs of tiredness, while throwing flurries of punches and not backing off even after getting nailed by some big shots.
Sanchez Jr., who beat Juan Francisco Estrada, the current WBO/World Boxing Association flyweight champion in an eight-round bout early in his career, but lost in a rematch, also scored a ninth-round knockout in a title defense against Filipino Rodel Mayol on Sept. 22, 2012.
The 21-year-old Pagara, in his last fight when he made his US debut at the StubHub Center in Carson City, California, scored an impressive sixth-round knockout over Nicaraguan southpaw William Gonzalez to win the vacant WBO Youth Intercontinental title after earlier scoring a spectacular first-round knockout over highly touted Hugo Partida, to win the vacant IBF Intercontinental title on June 21, 2014.
Magsayo will face off with another Mexican warrior in 22-year-old lightweight Eduardo Montoya, who has a record of 17-4-1 with 13 knockouts.
Montoya, who is scheduled to fight Tony Luis for the World Boxing Council Latino Interim title on Jan. 29, is coming off a sixth-round TKO win over Cipriano Garcia in a scheduled 10-round bout last Oct. 2 after earlier scoring a 10-round unanimous decision over Luis Gonzalez on Sept. 19, 2014.
Magsayo also fought on the initial US presentation of ALA Promotions in partnership with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN and the widely watched The Filipino Channel – and scored a spectacular first-round knockout of fancied Mexican Yardley Suarez to capture the IBF Youth featherweight title after earlier winning by a fifth-round TKO over Rafael Reyes on July 11, 2015.
The 20-year-old Magsayo has a record of 12-0 with 10 knockouts and together with Pagara is regarded as a future world champion.