DURING the pre-match press conference for the visiting fighters, Nicaraguan Yesner Talavera vowed to take undefeated Albert Pagara to boxing school in the main event of Pinoy Pride 35. During the pre-match press conference for all fighters, Talavera reiterated the vow and promised Pagara and the fans will see what he meant when the two finally meet in the ring.
Talavera didn?t speak a single word in English and had an interpreter with him.And after watching Saturday night?s main event, I want that Pinoy Pride translator?s language skills re-tested.
Perhaps he didn?t get what Talavera was actually saying in his replies to the media; heck, for all we know he could have been talking about his previous night?s sleep and the local media got the rehashed version of ?I?ll take Pagara to boxing school.?
Because during fight night, it surely wasn?t a boxing clinic that Talavera put on; he backpedaled for much of the night that had it not been for the ropes, by the second round he would have been at IT Park, and by the 10th, he would have been at the Mactan International Airport, ready to take his flight back home, just a mere day after promising to take the fight to Pagara.
Two judges had it a complete shutout, 120-107, for Pagara while a third one?perhaps distracted by the round girls?somehow gave a round to the Nicaraguan runner, 119-107.
The crowd, sensing the Nicaraguan didn?t come to fight, was booing in the early rounds, and to egg Pagara on, some started mimicking the ?woosh-woosh? sound the local fighter would make every time he?d launch a combination.
Pagara didn?t want to disappoint the crowd too, and tried to let Talavera hit him at will to initiate the action. Sometimes, Talavera would taunt Pagara, that his punches didn?t hurt him, but his actions?or to be specific, his back-pedaling?showed otherwise. By the seventh and eighth rounds, the interaction of the crowd with Pagara and referee Danrex Tapdasan was more exciting than the action.
?Pug-ngi na ref para dili mudagan!? one said.
?Blockingi na Jason!? another said.
It was close to midnight and one said it for all of the fans, ?Tumbaha na na, para manguli na ta!?
And in the middle of a fight?at least, technically it was a fight?Pagara shouted back, ?Mudagan man!?
It was at that moment that I started looking for that translator so I could translate what Pagara said and he could translate it back for Talavera.
But I doubt Talavera had time to listen. He was just darn too busy running.
