{"id":246551,"date":"2017-02-15T06:03:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=246551"},"modified":"2017-02-15T06:03:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T20:03:11","slug":"pikaboo-faces-australian-foe-pxc-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pikaboo-faces-australian-foe-pxc-56\/","title":{"rendered":"Pikaboo faces Australian foe in PXC 56"},"content":{"rendered":"
Trench Tech\u2019s Shane \u201cPikaboo\u201d Alvarez, left, connects on a left straight on Miami\u2019s Emilio Urrutia during their bantamweight bout in PXC 54 in Guam last year. (Pacific Xtreme Combat Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trench Tech\u2019s Shane \u201cPikaboo\u201d Alvarez hopes to move closer to a title bout in the bantamweight division with a win against an Australian fighter in PXC 56 next month.
\n\u201cYes, I\u2019m fully confirmed for PXC 56 which will be taking place in Guam on March 25. My opponent is Darwin Sagurit,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

Sagurit fights out of Australian Top Team based in Sydney, New South Wales and won his last two fights. The 32-year-old MMA fighter holds a 7-4 win-loss record with five of his victories coming by way of knockouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very important fight because one more after this one and I know I\u2019ll be the next person in line to fight for the 135-lb belt. I\u2019ll be going out there and giving it my very best to make sure I get the win,\u201d said Alvarez.<\/p>\n

Guam\u2019s Trevin \u201c5 Star\u201d Jones holds PXC\u2019s bantamweight crown following his controversial split decision victory over Kyle Aguon in PXC 55 late last year.<\/p>\n

Alvarez, on the other hand, earned a convincing win over Miami\u2019s Emilio Urrutia in PXC 54 in July 2016. The CNMI fighter used a rear-naked choke to stop Urrutia at the 4:31 mark of the second round. With the victory, Alvarez improved his record to 12-4, three of them via KOs, five off submissions, and four by decisions.<\/p>\n

Against Sagurit, Alvarez is excited for the slam-bang affair.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy opponent is a stand-up fighter, he likes to throw haymakers and slug it out. I am extremely excited about this because I am a stand up fighter as well so it\u2019s definitely going be an entertaining bout,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

Sagurit\u2019s back-to-back wins last year were all by knockouts in the first round. In Brace 42 in Canberra, he pummeled Byron Cowell with punches to get the TKO win at the 2:30 mark of the opening round. Then in Brace 45, which was also held in the Australian capital, it took Sagurit only 50 seconds to KO (punches) Richie Ivory. With his twin wins, Sagurit held a 3-1 record in 2016 with his other victory against Gustavo Falcirole (TKO\/punches) in Minotaur 3: Carnage in Victoria, Australia. Incidentally, the Aussie\u2019s lone loss (unanimous decision) last year was in PXC (53) against Rex de Lara.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has heavy hands so I just need to keep my hands up. I have the height and reach advantage on him and the speed and as long as I use them I should be in the green,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been training right after the holidays so I could start the year strong. I\u2019m feeling good and ready and still got over a month to train some more. I\u2019m very excited for this upcoming match as the preparations for it have been going really well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trench Tech\u2019s Shane \u201cPikaboo\u201d Alvarez hopes to move closer to a title bout in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":246554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9369,51,1289,8285],"class_list":["post-246551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-emilio-urrutia","tag-guam","tag-pxc","tag-tko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}