CHICAGO – Beneath the undercard of two world title fights, both of which were telecast on HBO’s Boxing After Dark (BAD) series, ALA Stable gem, Z Gorres, the reigning OPBF superflyweight champion, got the toughest assignment of his international campaign last Saturday.
Now fighting under the umbrella of Oscar Dela Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, the lefty Mandauehanon climbed the open-air Home Depot Center in Carson about 6:30 p.m. just as the sun was about to flicker from the distant horizon.
Gorres hurdled his test with unanimous ease, earning 100-87 on all three judges’ scorecards. He beat a brave and game foe to a pulp, and after 10, brutally one-sided rounds, Z had filled the pale-blue California skies with the promise of his world-class potential.
Z decked Pedro Rincon Miranda four times, twice in the first and once each in the fifth and final rounds. It was a punishment that bordered on the sadistic. Z hit the veteran Miranda with all that trainers Edito Villamor and Freddie Roach told him to throw, which was pretty much everything allowed in boxing.
But the Colombian, a 31-year-old veteran nicknamed El Torito, kept charging like a man with suicidal thoughts. With his granite jaw and ability to take a punch, there was no doubt that Miranda would have beaten the count even if Gorres hit him with the padded steel ring post.
“He went down twice with a flurry of combinations in the first round. He walked right through a wonderfully-timed straight left in the fifth, and in the 10th, I tagged him with another vicious combination. Amazingly, Miranda kept coming back for more,” Z told me in Cebuano yesterday.
Clearly, the absence of a knockout was a testament to Miranda’s toughness, not an indictment against Gorres’ power.
Speaking of power, Miranda had a lot to give, too. “He’s heavy handed and placed his punches well. That’s probably why he has 25 KOs in 30 wins,” Gorres recounted. The only problem was that Z was too fast for the plodding Colombian, and try as Miranda did for 10 gallant rounds, he couldn’t nail a fatal punch.
“It was a masterful performance,” said an awed WBO vice-president Leon Panoncillo, who sat at ringside to witness his organization’s No.1 contender. And Leon wasn’t alone in the fast-growing Z Gorres fan club.
“WBO president Paco Valcarcel was also extremely pleased,” Panoncillo narrated. “Paco was impressed with Z’s punch volume and delivery. He said Gorres is truly world class.”
Hours after the fight, Panoncillo shared the hotel elevator with one of Marco Antonio Barrera’s trainers. He, too, gave the two-thumbs up, calling Z “a very good fighter.”
Edito “ALA” Villamor, himself an ex-champ, knows a marvel when he sees one. Villamor liked Z’s aggressiveness, the willingness to constantly apply pressure, and the accurate delivery. But there is still room for improvement, little flaws that will be rectified in the gym.
Promoter Sammy Gello-ani will meet Dela Hoya’s people within the coming weeks to chart Z’s future plans. Meantime, the 24-year-old Gorres can’t wait to come home. His wife Datches gave birth to their third child, a bouncing baby boy named Zhay, last April 24.
Z was deep into his five-week training at the Wild Card Gym then, so he couldn’t join mother and child in the hospital. But they were always in his thoughts. “I also have two kids, three-year old Zheybert and 18-month-old Sheyle Dhey. I miss them all, especially the newborn whom I yet have to hug. They’re my inspiration,” said Z, his voice fading with melancholy.
Lovingly, Z thanked his fans, including his fellow-Mandauehanons for their continued prayers and support. He said having Villamor and Roach in his corner is a definite confidence-boost. “They reinforce my faith in what I can do atop the ring. The training and physical conditioning that I go through at Wild Card allows me to compete against the world’s best.”
He was in Tagbilaran City last week so I didn’t have a chance to interview Antonio L. Aldeguer (ALA), the chief architect behind ALA stable’s slow but sure ascension atop the ranks of world boxing. But the safest assumption to make is that Tony is a happy man, what with the recent success of both Z and Boom-Boom.
Good things happen to good people, after all.
