For a second year in a row, Melvin Jerusalem finds himself as the lone champion standing atop Philippine boxing.

The unassuming Filipino lifted his second world title belt on Saturday, dropping the previously unbeaten Yudai Shigeoka twice to win the WBC strawweight title by split decision in Nagoya, Japan. It was a stunning turn of fortunes for the 30-year-old Jerusalem (22-3, 12 knockouts), who had lost his WBO 105-pound title last May to Oscar Collazo by seventh round stoppage, ending his first reign just over four months after he won the belt.

“I’m very happy because I am a world champion again. It’s the same feeling like before. Now I have my dream belt, the WBC world championship,” said Jerusalem.

“I was hungry to become a world champion again because it was very hard for me to lose my belt. That’s why I trained hard to win the world championship.”

Despite being the visiting fighter, Jerusalem felt at home in Nagoya. His manager, Nobuyuki Matsuura, is from Nagoya, as is Jerusalem’s girlfriend. He had often visited Nagoya for training camps as well.

Now Jerusalem, who is trained by Michael Domingo, says the plan isn’t to sit on his new world championship. He says he wants to build off his legacy, calling for unification bouts with Shigeoka’s younger brother, IBF titleholder Ginjiro Shigeoka (11-0, 9 KOs), or a rematch with Collazo, who has defended the title twice since beating Jerusalem.

“I want to fight the other champions. I want to unify the belts. I hope they give me a chance,” said Jerusalem.

Promoter Jim Claude Manangquil says that a fight with the other Shigeoka brother could be easy to make considering that the Shigeoka brothers’ promoter Koki Kameda owns an option for Jerusalem’s next defense. He says that a Collazo rematch could be intriguing as well, adding that jetlag - Jerusalem had trouble sleeping for seven days prior to the fight in California - was a contributing factor in his performance that night.

Manangquil adds that there is currently no WBC mandatory challenger set, though one will be named after fellow Filipino Joey Canoy faces Australian Alex Winwood in an elimination bout. Jerusalem defeated Canoy, who is currently his training partner and friend, by a competitive unanimous decision in 2017.

With this win, Jerusalem, who is one of eleven Filipino boxers to ever win a world title at 105 pounds, becomes just the first ever to win it twice in boxing’s smallest weight class.

Manangquil believes that Jerusalem’s performance against Shigeoka showed he was a complete fighter, using his skills to control the fight early, and showing his determination to close out the fight late, showed that his second round technical knockout win over Masataka Taniguchi to win his first title in January of 2023 was not a fluke.

“Now no one can say that he won his first world title with a lucky shot or whatever they called that. After he lost to Collazo, people said he didn’t deserve to become a world champion. But with this win, he proved to everybody with this win that he’s really a true world class world champion boxer at 105 pounds,” said Manangquil of Sanman Promotions.

“With that showing he proved to everybody that he’s one of the best 105-pounders the Philippines ever had.”

Jerusalem returned to the Philippines on Sunday to a hero’s welcome at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, and held a press conference with assembled media the following morning. His next move is to return home to Manolo Fortich in Bukidnon province, where a homecoming celebration is being planned. Jerusalem says he hasn’t been back to his hometown since October, and will spend a week or two with his five siblings and mother before returning to training.

Jerusalem says his plan is to have a longer championship reign than the brief one he experienced last year.

“I’m very happy to become the only world champion in the Philippines again. I avenged my co-boxers against Japan,” said Jerusalem.

“I will train harder to defend my belt for a long time.”