Reymart Gaballo

Gaballo turned professional in 2014 and won 18 consecutive fights before challenging and beating Stephon Young for the WBA interim bantamweight title.^[1]

On 19 December 2020, Gaballo fought Emmanuel Rodríguez for the vacant WBC interim bantamweight title. Rodríguez was ranked #1 by the WBC and by The Ring at bantamweight. Despite being outclassed, outboxed and outpunched by Rodríguez in a lopsided contest, the judges gave Gaballo a split-decision win, which was seen as a robbery. One judge saw Rodríguez as the clear winner, scoring it 118–110 in his favor, while the other two judges scored it 116-112 and 115–112 in favor of Gaballo.^[2] The fans also found Rodríguez as the clear winner, with 30 scorers on BoxRec averaging a score of 116.57–111.63 in favor of Rodríguez.^[3]

In his next bout, Gaballo challenged Nonito Donaire for the WBC bantamweight title. Donaire started the fight strong, and then proceeded to finish Gaballo in the fourth round with a left hook to the liver from which Gaballo couldn't get up from.^[4]

After tasting defeat, Gaballo on his next bout fought compatriot Ricardo Sueno for the vacant WBO Oriental and ABCO Asian Continental bantamweight titles at Lagao Gym, General Santos, where Gaballo made an astonishing 2nd round TKO,^[5] on Gaballo's first title defense of the WBO Oriental title against Michael Bravo whom just recently returned to boxing, gave him a close fight ending in an SD win for Gaballo eventually.^[6]

Prior to the Michael Bravo victory, Gaballo became the mandatory challenger for Jason Moloney's WBO title, Moloney would first defend his title on a rather controversial victory against Saul Sanchez, a month after that, Gaballo made his second defense of the Oriental belt against veteran and former Interim WBA strawweight champion Paipharob Kokietgym, Gaballo makes a quick work out of his Thai foe as he landed the same shot that Donaire made him taste defeat, left punch to the body, ending the bout in 32 seconds.^[7] Although Gaballo seemed like the reasonable opponent for Moloney, however, on March 6, 2024, Moloney would be announced to defend his WBO title against Yoshiki Takei.^[8]

In April 7, 2024, Gaballo was set to have a keep-busy fight before taking a world championship bout, awaiting for Moloney vs. Takei winner,^[9] Gaballo's opponent, Kenbun Torres is an interesting opponent, having a rather lackluster career from 2003 to 2007, amassing a record of 10–2 before retiring until Torres' return in 2016 amassing a record of 12–3, and retiring again, in 2023 he returned again and his first bout was an upset knockout loss against a journeyman but would compose a record of 13–5 before fighting Gaballo,^[10] Torres later vowed to make a life-changing victory,^[11] and so Torres did, Torres scored a shocking 3 knockdowns against Gaballo en route to a first round TKO loss for Gaballo.^[12]