CHICAGO – I called the Wild Card Gym first. It was 12:50 p.m. here in Chicago, but only 10:50 a.m. in Los Angeles, which is operating on Pacific Standard Time.
Quick as a jab, Freddie Roach grabbed the phone from the female receptionist and told me “They are at the doctor’s office right now, but I haven’t heard from them yet. Call again in about 30 minutes,” said the bespectacled trainer of champions.
Damn, the half hour seemed like an eternity. So I waited impatiently, mindlessly toying with the spaghetti-thin cord of my cellphone’s hands-free device.
But five minutes after talking to Roach, my Nokia rang. The call bore one of California’s multiple area codes, a 213. It was from LA, and from my earpiece, the familiar voice of Edito Villamor came to life.
“It’s okay now,” he said. He then passed the phone over to Michael Aldeguer, who gladly filled me in with the details.
“Z was cleared by the eye doctor, Homs,” said Mike, Tony Aldeguer’s heir apparent to the world-famous ALA stable empire.
The clearance, Mike explained, paves the way for the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) to lift its hold on Z Gorres’ scheduled appearance at the World Cup of Boxing in Sacramento this Sunday.
It all seemed so easy, doesn’t it? Only it wasn’t.
Late this July, a routine medical check-up for World Cup protagonists uncovered a tear in Z’s retina. It was just a slight tear, but enough to blur Z’s future.
The 115-pound southpaw from Mandaue was put on the freezer pending another check-up with the eye doctor and his laser. Gorres, 25, was told to refrain from sparring, but he did the other stuff—jogging, hitting the bags, the whole shebang.
All along, Z never worried that his bout would be scrapped. The idea that the angels would abandon him didn’t cross his mind. Not now, he thought, not in an event as enormous as the World Cup.
Z kept the faith.
He treated yesterday like it was just another training day. He woke up at 5:30 a.m., and with Bert Batawang, a “Ninja” from Cebu, Gorres ran along 4th and 5th streets in sleepy downtown Los Angeles.
At 6:30 a.m., Z and Bert had breakfast. They double-teamed a plateful of fruits. It was a one-sided affair, the fruits were chewed beyond recognition.
At 8:45 a.m., Mike, with his beauty queen wife Christine Inocencio-Aldeguer, picked up Z and trainer Edito Villamor for the date with the eye doctor.
They drove to the office of Dr. Steven Steinschriber at 201 Alvarado St. They were followed by a three-man crew from ABS-CBN led by super reporter Dyan Castillejo.
The doctor was running a little behind schedule, so Z’s 9:45 a.m. appointment was stretched slightly. But like a good patient, Z patiently waited inside Room 500.
The exam took “about 30 minutes,” Z told me. And when laser met his retina, the only thing Z saw was a clear path to Sacramento.
“Nahuwasan ko, sir,” (I feel relieved) he said, his voice sounding as though a giant rusty, red brick had just been plucked from his weary shoulders.
Even after the “slight tear” was found, Z’s prognosis was good. He was informed that there was still an 80 percent chance that he would appear in the World Cup. But nothing was final, which caused some of the anxiety.
But that scary eye episode is behind Z now, a passing storm that had mercifully dissipated.
With his eyes cleared, Z can now fix his sights on the prize—a win at the World Cup, which features the Philippines versus Mexico.
“It’s an honor to represent our country this Sunday,” he said in Cebuano. “I’ve trained hard for this. I’m confident I can win, added Z, a shifty lefty who holds a 26-2 slate with 14 KOs.
I, too, felt relieved. Minus Z Gorres, the World Cup would have lost some of its sparkle.
And so when I was writing this column last night, I clicked on YouTube.com. I sang and listened happily to a 1970s hit song by Johnny Nash:
“I can see clearly now, the rain has gone/I can see al the obstacles in my way/Gone are the clouds that had me blind/It’s gonna be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day/It’gonna be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day” Amen.
