NAMED after the famous fictional boxing hero, Rocky Fuentes, like Rocky Balboa, had to overcome the ups and downs of a career in the ring.
?My father was a boxer before. He brought me to watch Boxing at the Mall when I was 12 years old and that inspired me to take up the sport,? Fuentes, who won his OPBF flyweight title defense last Nov. 27, told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview at the ALA gym.
At 13, his father brought him to the gym of Antonio L. Aldeguer to be trained. As an amateur, he won 50 of his 60 fights.
He was ready to turn pro, but his parents prevailed on him to finish his studies first.
?Naningkamot ko ug eskwela para maka pro ko kay di man ko nila sugtan kung dili ko mahuman og high school,? said Fuentes.
After finishing high school, he turned to boxing full time in 2003, debuting with Rey ?Boom-Boom? Bautista.
Fuentes?s career took off well and he won his first eight fights, five by knockouts.
But an incident in his fourth win, a fourth-round knockout win over John Eman Juarez, shook him and forever changed his life.
Like Fuentes, Juarez, a gifted amateur boxer who once made it to the RP team, was just starting his pro career and was on his second fight.
Juarez?s fight with Fuentes turned out to be his last.
Phobia
After getting knocked out in the fourth round during their fight in Danao City on Dec. 28, 2003, Juarez was taken by stretcher off the ring. He was comatose. Three days later, he died. Dr. Jose Unabia, the ringside physician in that match, told Sun.Star Cebu that Juarez was already comatose the moment he got down.
Juarez died three days later, on Dec. 31, 2003?a day short of his 25th birthday.
That incident affected Fuentes severely.
?I couldn?t focus any more, nagka phobia ko,? Fuentes said.
Being in a sport that puts heavy emphasis on killer instinct, having killed someone spurred Fuentes?s downward spiral. After winning his first eight bouts, he won just one in his next six, losing thrice and drawing twice. From 8-0, his record dropped to 9-3-2.
?I lost my killer instinct,? he said in Cebuano. ?I kept thinking of negative things.
I also got scared that what happened to Juarez will happen to me.?
The soft-spoken Fuentes turned to his family, his handlers and his church to get over that period.
?Gi-tambagan ko nila nga trabaho ra ang tanan, ug dili nako sala ang nahitabo kay igo rako nitrabaho,? he said.
Fuentes got back on the winning track before losing two straight fights in 2006.
Since then, he?s just lost one in his last 16 fights and is on an eight-fight winning streak.
He also won the OPBF title with a majority decision win over Masafumi Okubo in Japan, and defended it twice. That last, a second-round stoppage of Inthanon Sithcamuang.
Fuentes, now 28-6-2, 18KOs, is ranked sixth in the World Boxing Organization, seventh in the World Boxing Association, eighth in International Boxing Federation and ninth in the Ring Magazine.
Being in the top 10 means he could get a crack at the world title but Fuentes is not in a hurry.
?I?m just waiting, I?m ready all the time to fight for a world title against anybody,? said Fuentes. ?Now, I still don?t have a fight so I?ll just focus on my training. I?ll just follow what my promoters tell me.? (Richiel S. Chaves, SWU Mass Comm Intern)
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on December 06, 2010.
