Ra’eese outclasses Plania, inches closer to WBO title

Filipino boxer Mike Plania ran out of magic tricks up his sleeves and lost steam against a heavy-duty fighter in Ra’eese Aleem in their ten-round junior featherweight bout at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles California Sunday night, Sept. 4 there.

Aleem unleashed hefty left hooks and wild combinations against Plania, who struggled to find his rhythm from the get-go after getting knocked down as early in the second round as the American boxer dominated with a unanimous decision win.

The 32-year-old Aleem showed why he was unbeaten for a reason and connected a right hand to Plania’s abdomen, causing the boxer from General Santos City to flinch and get down on his knees while his gloves touched the canvas.

Referee Ray Corona credited Aleem for the knockdown and from that point on, the Muskegon, Michigan native lived up to his nickname “The Beast” and went frenzy with his left hooks and setups.

The second round proved to be the turning point of the match as Plania, nicknamed “Magic,” just couldn’t recover from the knockdown, although he showed steely resolve to counter Aleem’s punches and make it a duel.

But Aleem mixed it up with his combinations, throwing strong rights which caught Plania off guard as the reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) North American Boxing Organization (NABO) super bantamweight titlist continued his aggression.

Despite the 25-year-old Plania returning the favor, it turned out to be a lopsided match as Aleem raised the standard and marched on, trying to look for the stoppage in the latter rounds but to no avail.

That said, Aleem earned three 100-89, 100-89, 100-89 decisions from the judges.

Aleem improved to 20 wins on top of 12 knockouts while Plania fell to a 26-2 record with 13 KOs.

With the victory, Aleem has set sights on the WBO title shot against reigning champion Stephen Fulton, who is also undefeated with 21 wins and eight KOs.

Fulton is also the unified WBO and WBC titlist in the super bantamweight/junior featherweight division or 122lb.

A title shot for Plania, on the other hand, has slipped away once more.