19 year old and WBO #1 ranked Bantamweight Rey Bautista of the Philippines showed a lot of maturity in the ring in winning a unanimous decision after getting dropped and hurt in the second round during some furious action by the very tough Gerardo Locomotora Espinoza of Tijuana, Mexico. Bautista and Espinoza went head to head from the first bell which resulted in great action. Bautista was hurt badly enough in the second stanza that he ended up walking to the wrong corner after the bell rang. The third round was also competitive with Espinoza getting the better of it. Bautista attacked with hard body shots that didnt seem to have much effect on the very experienced Espinoza. The fourth came and some great exchanges ensued with Espinoza getting the early portion of the round and Bautista taking the latter half as he shook Espinoza with some hard blows. Nice work by Bautista in the fifth as he went forward and landed effective body and head shots that clearly bothered the Tijuana fighter. The Filipino took the rest of the fight as the body shots were now having their desired effect on Espinoza. Good poise and recuperative powers shown by the Filipino as he took the seventh and eighth rounds to win a unanimous decision with scores of 76-75, 76-75 and 77-74. Bautista improves to 18-0, (14 KOs). Espinoza drops another tough one and is now 28-10, (26 KOs). Bautista stated that this was the hardest fight of his career.
