By Ronnie Nathanielsz

AJ Banal and Czar Amonsot are not only back, they?re back with a vengeance.

The two southpaws thrilled a crowd of 15,000 fight fans at the Island City Mall car park in Tagbilaran City late Saturday with impressive victories over game Indonesian opponents and left no doubt that their careers were back on track.

Banal, who is ranked no. 8 by the International Boxing Federation, no. 9 by the World Boxing Association and no. 14 by the World Boxing Organization, was returning from a shocking 10th-round knockout at the hands of Panama?s Rafael Concepcion in a WBA super flyweight interim title fight last July 26. His fine performance quickly rekindled hopes of a future world title.

He moved with confidence and often caught Indonesian champion Nouldy Manakane with cracking combinations. And whenever the Indon turned aggressor, Banal would counter with deadly accuracy.

Banal dropped Manakane with a hard left in the second round and put him away for good with a perfectly timed combination that sent the Indonesian crashing to the canvas at 1:39 of the fourth, with referee Ben Necessario not even bothering to count as the ring physicians clambered into the ring to help the fallen Indon recover and get back on his feet.

With the impressive win, the overjoyed Banal improved to 18-1 with 15 knockouts and clearly erased the memory of his only defeat.

Manakane, while fighting gamely, eventually succumbed to the infinitely superior Filipino and dropped to 17-8-1 with 8 knockouts.

Lightweight Amonsot (18-3-1, 10 KOs) showed no signs of the ill-effects of a bloody and brutal war with Australia?s Michael Katsidis in Las Vegas in July 2007. His career was put in doubt after doctors discovered a tiny speck of blood outside his brain.

Ironically, Katsidis scored a lopsided 10-round decision over Argentina?s Hugo Ramirez before some 3,000 fans at the Cebu Coliseum, who booed the Australian?s foe, who was obviously out to survive. Amonsot was cheered lustily by a crowd that Dong Secuya of Philboxing estimated at five times the Cebu crowd.