CHICAGO – The life story of Rey Bautista fits perfectly as lyrics for a classic country song. It wafts with melancholy and bleeds from its many violent collisions with adversity. Yet beneath all the sadness lies hope, beaming like sunlight through a shield of darkened clouds.
Rey is currently training under the care of his co-manager Mike Koncz in Orange County, California. Everyday, Rey feeds one memorable page after another to his hungry diary. And from his shy lips to my eager ears, the hitman from Bohol narrated the rollicking journey that has brought him here in America.
It all began in Candiyay, a fourth-class municipality some 100 kilometers away from Tagbilaran City. One sweltering summer seven years ago, Rey enlisted himself in a boxing tournament held as part of the town’s fiesta celebration.
Only 12 then, Rey had never fought before, but he didn’t care. All that mattered to him was the P800 prize money and how it would feed his large family of six siblings, who had ran out of rice to eat.
As a minor, Rey needed either one of his parents to sign a waiver before he could throw a punch. But Alberto and Susana, born to poverty and ravaged by life’s miseries, would rather starve than allow their son to dance with disaster in the ring. Undaunted, Rey forged his mom’s signature. And a star was born.
Impressed with what he saw, a boxing promoter went to the Bautista household and begged Rey’s parents to let their kid fight. Soon after, Rey was hopping from one town fiesta to another, knocking out foes, and showcasing the two-fisted power of a category five storm.
Before long, Rey had claimed more victims than a ruthless serial killer.
After his gold medal stint in the 2002 National Youth Games, Rey caught the discriminating eyes of boxing patron Antonio L. Aldeguer. One of the sport’s premiere talent evaluators, ALA saw a diamond in the rough and swiftly took the Boholano under his wing.
It has since been a beautiful ride, and the polishing of a pure talent continues in earnest in a far and distant shores.
“Swerte kaayo ko, sir Homer,” (I’m just lucky) Rey told me. “Maayo kaayo si sir ALA nako. Wala man gani tawon ko magdahom maka-sakay og barko pero na-abot hinuon ko sa America para mag-training og manginabuhi. Dili nako maguol sa akong pamilya.” (ALA’s been so good to me. I never thought of even riding a ship, yet here I am in America, training and making a living. I don’t have to worry about my family anymore).
Aldeguer’s generosity and concern for his fighters are stuff of legend. It’s what puts ALA in a league of his own. ALA considers his fighters as family, human beings that need nurturing on and off the ring. Other promoters and stable owners look at their boxers only as commodities, resources that are milked when they’re good, and discarded once they get old.
Since hooking up with ALA, Rey has built a modest P350,000 house in Candijay. He invested P100,000 for a stall in the Tagbilaran market where his mother now sells fish six days a week. And he gave his father a motorcycle so he doesn’t have to walk for miles everyday peddling fish in Candijay.
Rey used his fight purse in Hawaii to open a six-figure bank acocunt in his name. He also sat aside P50,000 for the school needs of his four younger siblings, the youngest of whom is still in first grade. Rey’s elder sister Jocelyn is now a teacher, and her acquisition of that cherished diploma was made possible only through a brother’s blood, sweat and tears.
But Rey isn’t content.
“Daghan pa ko ig mga pangandoy, sir og maninguha gyud kong ma kampiyon,” he said.
As someone who has had his share of misery, I pride myself of having steel nerves. But when Rey told me his life story in its sincere, gut-wrenching detail, I couldn’t stop the tears.
His life is indeed lyrics for a classic country song. But country songs aren’t country songs until they end in a chorus of triumph and joy. Here’s hoping that Rey gets his due after a lifetime of woes.
P.S. In tomorrow’s special column, I’ll feature Rey’s training regimen, his diet, his opponent, and his life in America as he prepares for the biggest fight of his life this Sunday, the undercard of Pacquiao-Hernandez at Staples Center. Don’t miss it.
