He once wallowed in the mud embarrassment and was subjected to harsh criticisms because of his shocking first round knockout defeat to Indonesian Simson Butar Butar right before the very eyes of his Boholano townmates in September last year.
But for the resurgent ALA ring gladiator Czar Amonsot, life must go on discerning that when one commits mistakes, it’s not too late to make amends.
Fortunately, second chance is kind enough for the pride of Tagbilaran City. After winning his comeback fight by split decision over Korean Da Woon Jung to snatch the ABO Asia Pacific lightweight championship last February, a golden opportunity smacked Amonsot’s way.
Amonsot is set to challenge undefeated champion Michael “Rocky” Katsidis of Australia for the WBO lightweight title underneath the super middleweight showdown between Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins and Winky Wright on July 21 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Carrying an extra luggage of overcoming the toughest test in his budding career, Amonsot will leave for Los Angeles this 5 pm to undergo further training at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym. He will be accompanied by his trainer Edito “ALA” Villamor.
“My defeat to Butar Butar taught me a lot of lessons. It gives me positive outlook in life and it changed me for the better. Now I can say I’m a changed man,” Amonsot told The Freeman.
After giving his mentor and benefactor Antonio “Bidoy” L. Aldeguer some heartaches, Amonsot stares at the bright prospect of becoming the first ALA boxer to fulfill Aldeguer’s dream of having a world champion in his star-studded stable.
“I can’t promise anything. All I can say is that I will give my all out best to win. This opportunity comes only once and I will make the most out of it. I just hope my countrymen will support me and help my pray for my victory,” said Amonsot.
Villamor is confident that Amonsot will get past the heavily-favored Australian champion because his ward has been training so hard over the past few months.
“Amonsot has a very good chance of winning because of his rigid preparations. He’s in great condition and he looked very sharp in sparring against the likes of Randy Suico, Mark Jason Melligen and Dondon Sultan,” said Villamor.
Amonsot was originally booked to defend his WBO regional belt to against Indonesian Hero Katili in a mammoth card in Cebu on July 7, but pulled out of the bout to give way to a more prominent and lucrative match with Katsidis.
Katsidis was supposed to fight the unbeaten two-time WBO champion Joan Guzman of the Dominican Republic last May 26, but Guzman backed out of the fight after sustaining a shoulder injury during training.
Amonsot, who sports an 18-2-1 win-loss-draw record spiked with 10KOs, is surely in for the hardest fight of his life against the extremely dangerous Katsidis who is unscathed in 22 fights adorned with 20 victories by knockout.
“He (Katsidis) has an impressive record but I’m not scared of him,” boldly declared Amonsot.
