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Philippines, 05 May 2024 |
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BAUTISTA IS BACK TO SQUARE ONE PhilBoxing.com Mon, 24 Nov 2008  Las Vegas, NV:- To anyone with the personal expectations of Rey ?BoomBoom? Bautista, losing the way he did to Daniel Ponce de Leon is difficult to swallow. And, it may well stay with him for a very long time. Even forever! But there is a time to suck it up and move on. Bautista did that tonight but unfortunately his efforts were not enough. He suffered a knock-down and lost his first return fight in the US. After the loss to Ponce de Leon, many lost faith on the young man from Bohol particularly the ?band-wagon? fans that stand ready to jump off the wagon and call anyone a ?bum? after a loss. But, many others kept the faith, particularly the ALA Group. The ALA Group, Cebu?s most respected boxing family allowed Bautista to lay low and ponder his first defeat for several months. But at the same time they prop him up mentally and physically to get him ready for an eventual moment like tonight. The strategy was to give Bautista the so-called confidence building fights. On his first outing after the Ponce de Leon loss, he was matched against a fighter from Mexicali, Baja California named Antonio Meza. The fight held at the Araneta Coliseum was for the WBO Inter-Continental Bantamweight title. Bautista won via a lazy UD, a telltale sign that it may take a few more fights to bring him back to where he is totally comfortable about himself in the ring again. That was in December 2, 2007. Next he was paired against Genaro Camargo, again at the Araneta Coliseum. Bautista staked his crown against the Sinaloa, Mexico slugger on March 6, 2008. It took Bautista two short rounds to dispose off his opponent. That quick victory appeared to have brought him back near his pre-Ponce de Leon form when he was knocking out his opponents in succession. Sensing that Bautista was close to getting back to his old form, the ALA Group decided that it was time for him to fight before the people in Cebu and to show his new found mettle. He was asked to defend his crown for the third time against Eden Marques, a fighter from Sonora Mexico who parades a 50% KO rate. Bautista took care of Marquez via a 2nd round TKO. Last night, (Saturday, Las Vegas time) at the MGM Grand Event Center and fighting on the under card of the Hatton-Malignaggi tiff, Bautista showed that the mind was willing but the body can not deliver. Bautista took on a Los Mochis, Mexico fighter named Heriberto Ruiz. (39-7-2, 23KO) Ruiz was a chosen by the Golden Boy people who co-promotes Bautista in the USA to test the young man they call Boom Boom and see how far he has come back. The veteran Ruiz sports a KO rate of 47.92% and thus was no push over. His losses were to familiar fighters like Rafa Marquez, Irene Pacheco and Oscar Andrade. AT fight night he also appeared to be bigger than Bautista physically although they both weigh in at 122 pounds yesterday at the official weigh-in. The fight was slow from the get go. In fact there was some hissing from the crowd as it went on. It was also punctuated by head butts from both parties leading the referee to warn both of them to be careful. On the second round both fighters suffered cuts due to head butts. Ruiz was cut on the scalp on his right temple, while Bautista suffered one on his right eye area. From the severity of the damage, Bautista appeared to be on the short end of the stick as the location of his cut made for an easy target for Ruiz. In fact, it may have been his inability to see the punches from his right eye that could have caused the KD. But who is to say? Bautista?s cut kept on bleeding from round two making some pundits question what his corner people were doing. What puzzled them was their inability to control the bleeding. Although at best they were second guessing, one who has experience on dealing with cuts of such nature asked quietly:- ?did they have the right medication to deal with such problems perhaps something like Avetine? to supplement the commonly used ?adrenaline?? If not, why? Others, particularly those who had a better and a closer view of the fight, where a little bit more unforgiving. They questioned why the ?cut-man? Tony Martin of Las Vegas was not actively more involved in stopping the bleeding. It was Edito Villamor, the trainer who was working on the cut. Perhaps Martin and Villamor had an understanding if such problem occurs, someone said. But then, what is the use of having Martin there if Villamor did the work as a ?cut-man? anyway, another stated. We wish we can give an answer but that is not our job. We only report the facts as we hear them. With his second loss, Bautista is now back on square one. But being young and talented, I am pretty sure he can bounce back with a vengeance. One big advantage he has is the fact that he has the good people at the ALA Gym who believes in him and most definitely will continue to support his quest for a world title. Bautista incidentally, as per SOP was brought to a local hospital and had his cuts stitched. ?He had three cuts, one on the forehead, and one on each eye?, Michael Aldeguer informed this writer. ?He is back in his room and doing fine. Of course, he is a little disappointed,? he added. Click here for a complete listing of columns by this author. Click here for a complete listing of this author's articles from different news sources. |
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