Saturday?s ?WBO Night of Champions? was a big boost to the careers of two champions who have been waiting for over a year to get back into the limelight and show their readiness for the bigger stage.
WBO intercontinental superbantamweight Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista sprang to life in the second round and anesthetized Eden ?Anestecista? Marquez at 1:08 of the second round. Bautista, looking like he was carved out of stone, won his third fight in a row after suffering an embarrassing loss at the hands of the dangerous Daniel Ponce de Leon at the World Cup of Boxing in August of last year.
The standing-room crowd at the ballroom of the classy Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Lahug, Cebu City was aghast at the start of the fight, when Marquez, decked out in a pair of white shorts with sequined flaps in front and back, took the fight to Bautista, who did nothing but cover up.
Apparently, the plan was for Boom Boom to use his jab to size the Mexican up. But he carried the conservative strategy too far, and hardly boxed at all. This prompted his trainer, former world title contender Edito Villamor, to raise the alarm and wake him up. Bautista started the assault, then Marquez realized too late that his enjoyable vacation (his first fight outside Mexico) was about to end on a harsh note. Referee Bruce McTavish stepped in and asked Marquez if he could go on. He couldn?t.
Next for Boom Boom is a possible fight on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar Dela Hoya fight on Dec. 6.
WBO mini-flyweight champion Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes, who had been inactive for over a year due to two successive postponements of his title defenses, made short work of diminutive Eddy ?Torito? Castro on the same card. A left hook to the jaw flattened the Nicaraguan, and he could do nothing more to stop Nietes from taking his 14th knockout in 23 wins, to the delight of the raucous Filipino crowd.
On the amateur front, more bad news coming from the failed Philippine boxing campaign to the Beijing Olympics. Contrary to claims that the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines was unable to scout Harry Ta?amor?s first opponent, Ghanaian Mangyo Plange, this writer was able to find video of the All-Africa Games silver medalist and African champion through a very cursory search on the Internet which took no more than three minutes.
Under the name ?Manyo Plange?, you will find a seven-minute, 44-second report broadcast by Reuters and available on reuters.com, showing Plange in training. The 30-year-old fighter can be seen hitting a heavy bag totally covered in duct tape in the backyard gym of his trainer Daniel Lartey back home, where he had been training since he was 12. Boxing is Ghana?s second favorite sport after soccer.
Even more distressing is the fact that Plange was training with makeshift equipment outdoors, even at their Olympic training center.
Ofori Asare, Ghana?s Olympic boxing coach, was interviewed in the report, and said that he did what he could for the five qualifiers for the Olympics, since government financial support always comes in at the last minute.
When you see the squalid conditions under which the African contenders trained, compared to the comfort of the ABAP?s gym, you?ll feel even more upset that we only managed to send one fighter to the Games, and weren?t even able to protect him properly by scouting his opponent.
* * * Meanwhile, on Saturday last week, Mint Bar and Bistro hosted a party dubbed ?We Got Game!? for the NCAA and UAAP courtside reporters who work the games for ABS-CBN?s continuing coverage of college basketball. DJ Boyet Sison kept the drinks flowing and the crowd pumped up all night long with a trademark mix of current and classic hits.
?This is just our way of giving a vote of confidence to these young people who?ve taken a big, courageous step into the world of sports broadcasting,? said Sison, who commentates for NCAA games and co-hosts ABS-CBN News Channel?s daily sports talk show, Hardball. ?Besides, it?s a great excuse to have some fun.?
Almost all of the NCAA courtside reporters came ready to party.
