Bittersweet win for ‘The Crank’

Frank “The Crank” Camacho acknowledges the crowd after his technical knockout win against Guam’s Tyrone “Bones” Jones of Team Underworld Extreme in last Friday night’s Pacific Xtreme Combat 50 at the University of Guam Calvo Fieldhouse in Mangilao. (Facebook)

Frank “The Crank” Camacho defeated Tyrone “Bones” Jones by way of technical knockout in Friday night’s Pacific Xtreme Combat 50 at the University of Guam Calvo Fieldhouse in Mangilao.

It was a bittersweet win for Camacho as the 26-year-old fighter completed the TKO victory against Jones in the second round of their supposed title bout for the vacant lightweight belt in the main event that also featured seven other fights including the Alex Volkanovski-Yusuke Yachi co-mainer.

Volkanovski crowned himself as the new 145-lb champion after foiling Yachi’s title defense bid via triangle choke submission to improve to 11-1, while the Japanese bet dropped to 13-5.

Camacho could have won the lightweight title but he failed to make weight in last Thursday’s weigh in one day before his championship bout against Jones of Underworld Extreme.

He was 3.9 lbs overweight while his opponent tipped the scales at 153, two less than the 155-lb limit. He also improved to 18-3 with 14 knockouts, while Jones dropped to 5-5 with 3 KOs.

Camacho, on a Facebook post, thanked everyone—including his family and friends—who continue to support him despite all odds. “Another growing experience in my martial arts career and in life.”

“Thank you to my girl Sarah (and the little one on the way) for the backbone of my support system. All the love from family, friends and fans through this whole fight camp has been a true blessing,” said Camacho.

“Thank you to all my training partners at Spike22 getting me ready for this fight. To Tyrone and his camp for making me rise to the occasion, I’ve grown tremendously. Thank you for believing in the dream and goals of an Island Boy,” he added.

His victory somewhat eased the pain of the successive losses of Josh “Chaos” Duenas and cousins Roman” Sonic Boom” and Shane “Pikaboo” Alvarez against separate foes.

Duenas’ bid of earning his first PXC win continues after suffering a first round TKO defeat on the hands of New Zealand’s Kaiwhare Kara-France (11-5). He dropped to 4-6 with his last win was almost two years ago against Jordan Manglona in Trench Warz 17: Night of Champions.

Roman Alvarez’s three-fight winning streak in the PXC and seven straight overall ended with a second-round TKO loss to Mark Abelardo, who climbed to 12-4 with six KOs.

Shane Alvarez, the last CNMI bet fighting, also failed in his own bid with a unanimous decision setback against Japan’s Yutaro Muramoto in their 125-lb match. He now has three losses after 14 fights while Muramoto won his PXC debut to up his record to 3-1.

Cuki Alvarez, Shane’s father and Roman’s uncle, said the three Trench Tech warriors looked at the positive side of their respective defeats taking the loss as another learning experience and are moving forward.

“The goals remain the same. That never changes. We will be back to training [tonight] and will continue to work hard. Shane, Roman, and Josh all know what they ‘could’ve done’ or ‘should’ve done’ and will now work diligently on tightening up those holes in their game,” added Alvarez.