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Philippines, 20 Feb 2026 |
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THE SAGA OF DIOSDADO GABI By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Mon, 17 Mar 2008  LAS VEGAS -- Diosdado? Prince? Gabi, the little dynamo from Davao City deserved more than what he got last Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Not the devastating early knock-out at the hands of Abner Mares, the ex-Olympian from Mexico. What transpired that had lead to such a debacle? Rumor had it that Gabi was 6 pounds overweight a day before the weight-in. The Team had to ?drain? him to get him to the contractual weight of 118 lbs. On weight-in day, he was still slightly above. In fact, they stripped him naked in their vain attempt to make him hit 118 lbs. before he stepped on the scale. Obviously, that did not work because when he did, he was still 1.5 lbs. over the limit. With that, they ?drained? him further until he finally made weight. Wasn?t it the responsibility of the Team members to assure that Gabi was in tiptop condition and weighing within the contractual limit? Why wasn?t that done? And if it was, why wasn?t it done consistently? It?s not like Gabi was just coming into training. He had been at the gym for a good amount of time prior to this week. Had the Team keep track of him, the problem could have been easily averted. Perhaps the people directly involved with Gabi where focused somewhere else and Gabi, being a small part (no pun intended) of the whole scenario, was forgotten. Shades of Bobby Pacquiao! Then there is Gabi himself. As Abner Mares indicated at the post fight press con, ?Gabi is an old experienced fighter and he should have known better?. Mares hit it right on the button. Gabi should have paid more attention to details, his weight included. Because of this, Marers? victory was tainted. And it was not even his fault that Gabi came grossly unprepared. But a win is a win, and that is all that matters to him. So what is now in the future of Gabi? Only his handlers know. But I wish next time around they would do their job better and monitor him closer. One thing for sure, Gabi needs to go back to the drawing board and work on a little thing they call ?self-discipline?. Focus more on the training, and watching the diet to keep the weight in check. I like to add that changing some team members should be considered, particularly the people in charge of the nutrition and conditioning. Hopefully, that would bring him back to championship caliber. Top photo: Mexico's Abner Mares sent Diosdado Gabi to the canvas in this bit of action from their fight Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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