Fil-Australian helps Anglican priest make Guinness boxing record

By refereeing 45 rounds of a 120-round boxing match in Sydney, a Filipino-Australian journalist helped Anglican priest — Father Dave "Fighting Padre" Smith — set a Guinness World Record.   According to a report of the news site The Filipino Australian, Smith, 50, recently set a new Guinness record for the most number of continuous rounds of boxing.

Among those who helped Smith set the record was journalist Jimmy Pimentel, convenor of the Filipino Press Group of Sydney, a loosely formed association of journalists, bloggers, broadcasters, cartoonists, publishers, and editors.

Aside from Pimentel, three other referees from the Boxing Australia federation participated in the world record setting event on April 1. Pimentel, 70, was a former referee of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines. Smith boxed 120 rounds at three minutes per round with a one-minute rest in between. According to the report, Smith's feat officially eclipsed both the former world record of 25 rounds and the unofficial record of 111 rounds in the United States.

Among those who fought against the Fighting Padre were:  

• world super-middleweight champion Anthony Mundine,
• heavyweight Solomon Houmono,
• light-heavyweight Nader Hamdan, and
• world contenders Lovemore Ndou and Sol Egribine.

The Filipino Australian said the boxing rounds started at noon and finished at 8:00 p.m.

Pimentel had boxed against Smith in previous "box-a-thons" to raise funds for the youth drop-in centre which the priest runs in Dulwich Hill. - VVP, GMA News