LOS ANGELES ? The first time he visited the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood shortly before the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales super-featherweight rumble, Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista was in awe of what he saw at the famed sweatshop owned and operated by Freddie Roach.
Bautista was coming off an impressive win in Honolulu when he checked out the Wild Card and had to be dragged by his trainer Edito Villamor for him to see that he was not dreaming.
Bautista, a Bohol-born, Cebu-bred unbeaten bantamweight even had the chance to rub elbows with Roach, who told a handful of Filipino scribes that “he?s going to be the next Filipino (world) champion.”
Last Monday, Bautista, accompanied by Villamor, manager Tony Aldeguer and associate Sammy Gello-ani, brought their prized ward to the Wild Card to begin training. The next day, according to Gello-ani, Bautista worked out again and in the coming days, he is scheduled to spar.
“Before I left Los Angeles last Tuesday, they were already talking about when and who to spar,” Gello-ani told the Bulletin. “They?ll be staying there until April to spend more days in the gym.”
Bautista is booked to return to Hawaii sometime in July and Gello-ani said a tuneup fight in Cebu could be held sometime in May.
Armed with an unblemished professional slate of 13-0 with 10 knockouts, Bautista is determined to prove that Roach?s words made during that afternoon two weeks back would become prophetic.
Meanwhile, Manny Pacquiao is returning to Manila on the morning of Black Saturday.
Pacquiao, beaten by Mexican Erik Morales on points at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, will be accompanied by wife Jinkee and cornermen Buboy Fernandez and Lito Mondejar. It is not sure whether new members of his entourage are also joining the 17-hour trip that will have a one-hour refueling stop in Honolulu before heading to Manila.
Two members of the “original” Team Pacquiao ? Ramon Lainez and Gerry Garcia ? left for home via Las Vegas the day after Pacquiao?s memorable duel with Morales.
Rod Nazario, Pacquiao?s business manager, flew to Orlando, Florida, to visit his doctor-son, and would only be in Manila sometime mid-April.
Pacquiao is expected to fly to his hometown of General Santos City and should be back in Manila to attend the fifth Flash Elorde Boxing Awards at the Mandarin Oriental in Makati where he is going to be named “Boxer of the Year for 2004”.
Pacquiao?s chief handler, Shelly Finkel, said the extremely-popular southpaw is going to be back sometime in the summer and should figure in another marquee match in the fall.
