John Riel Casimero vows to finish foe in homecoming bout, Team Nghitumbwa calls for fair fight

Former three-division champion John Riel Casimero will look for a highlight-reel finish when he takes on WBO global super bantamweight champion Fillipus Nghitumbwa this Saturday, May 13 at Okada Manila in Paranaque City.

Casimero, 32-4 with 22 knockouts as a professional boxer, will fight for the first time in the Philippines since 2019. According to the brash Filipino prizefighter, he is coming for a knockout against Nghitumbwa on fight day.

"I am very excited for this fight, I am going to take his head off. Thank you to all who came here, especially to the press and our managers. The fight is almost here, it would be a great fight," Casimero said during the pre-fight press conference earlier today.

Nghitumbwa's manager and promoter Nestor Tobias, meanwhile, says his boxer only needs to have a fair fight to emerge victorious.

"Come Saturday night you will see that Fillipus Nghitumbwa is a special boxer. I just want the fight to be fair. I hope he throws the right punches because he likes to hit behind the head, hopefully, he would not do that. Let us make it a clean fight," Tobias stressed.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News