THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

A trivial comedy for serious people starring ERNESTO SAULONG Former IBF world title challenger Ernie Saulong is back where he belongs next month, centre ring in Manila paired with blue riband performer Michael “Hot’n Spicy” Dasmarinas. The outstanding Dasmarinas is no stranger to world title shots himself, having most recently fought pound for pound champion Naoya ‘the Monster” Inoue. Saulong who hails from Mindoro Occidental, now trains out of Laguna, and is fully versed in the enormity of the task that lies ahead. His career path has been highly successful against top echelon opponents, and he has managed to rack up 22 wins including 9 stoppages. The most notable of these was perhaps against top local prospect Arnel Baconaje, who seemed to be in total control their bout, yet was ultimately doubled over by body shots by the man known as “Chocolate”.

Ernie Saulong has also fought internationally, and ironically, it was a loss that won him most acclaim. In 2019, Saulong ventured to Australia where he took on the unbeaten and world rated Brock Jarvis. It was a match that Jarvis was meant to win comfortably, but Saulong turned it into a life and death struggle for the hometown fighter. It was the longest and toughest fight of the Aussie’s career, and Jarvis was made to dig deep by “Chocolate” Saulong. In the words of former world champion, and trainer Jeff Fenech: "And look at it like this, with 10 seconds to go in the first round, Brock got rocked by Saulong. Then got rocked again in the second. So he had to dig pretty deep. "To beat a Filipino champion like Ernie Saulong, you've gotta be able to fight. There's five thousand of them in each weight division. You've gotta be able to fight." So there you have it folks, world champion trainer Jeff Fenech paying Ernesto “Chocolate” Saulong the highest compliment. And they are words that Michael Dasmarinas should heed!