DAVAO CITY — Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista was drenched in blood and sweat and had the home crowd booing him. From the moment his knees buckled in the first round against Jose “Negro” Ramirez, nothing seemed to be going his way.
Bautista soldiered on, however, for the entire 12 rounds of the main event of Pinoy Pride XIX Mexican Invasion last Saturday. When the smoke of the battle cleared, Bautista was unable to snap the losing streak of Filipino boxers and went on to lose his World Boxing Organization international featherweight title via split decision.
During his entrance, the Filipino crowd let out a roar that filled the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) Obrero Gym. Their support for their beloved prizefighter was evident in their worried faces as Bautista was teetering on the ropes around the end of the first round.
Ramirez was just about to continue his assault when the bell rung to give Bautista a breather.
Bautista opened a small cut around Ramirez’s left eye in the second round, and the spectators continued to treat Ramirez as the villain, especially with an enormous jeering that followed Ramirez landing a few punches after the bell.
The center of the ring turned slippery in the fifth round and Ramirez was warned for head butting by the referee. The fighting continued to be stalled with clinches, and the fighters fell into the ropes during a clinch in the sixth round.
The slippery center of the ring reared its ugly head again in the seventh round, as Ramirez appeared to slip, but the referee wasn’t buying it.
Ramirez seemed gassed in the eighth round, and Bautista let loose with a slew of punches that brought the audience to their feet. That would be only one of the Filipino boxer’s good rounds however, as he was largely unable to build upon that momentum and Ramirez staged a comeback as the aggressor.
In the 10th round, a sneaky elbow by Ramirez opened a gash on the Filipino’s face. The blood trickled down freely from the cut and soon Bautista’s torso was covered in his own blood. The ringside doctor ruled him able to continue, however and the fight went on.
Bautista’s corner was unable to stop the bleeding in between rounds, and as the Filipino fighter began to cover up more and fight less, the people in Davao declared the Mexican invader as their champion.
Chants of Ramirez’s name in the 11th and 12th rounds filled the gym.
Suddenly, Bautista was no longer the darling of the Filipino fans, so much so that as he raised his arms and climbed the ring posts at the end of the fight, the audience jeered him with the same loud booing that Ramirez received earlier in the night.
Judges Salven Lagumbay and Danrez Tapdasan both scored the bout 114-11 for Ramirez while Edward Ligas had it 114-111 for Bautista. (Edward C. Lactoaen/Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
