IT’S GOING to take one whole day for Mexican Gilberto Bolanos to reach Cebu from his hometown of Ciudad Obregon in Sonora, Mexico. But he’s not worried.
Bolanos, 37, begins his back-breaking journey this morning accompanied by his trainer en route to the Far East for the first time in his career to test the mettle of an ambitious and heavy-handed Filipino who is aching to follow the footsteps of Manny Pacquiao.
Bolanos has been tapped to slug it out with Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista on June 11 at the Mandaue Sports Complex in Cebu with no less than a spectacular win being anticipated.
Unlike Bautista, who enjoys the comfort at the Tony Aldeguer’s well-furnished and world-class training headquarters, Bolanos will take the plane from Ciudad Obregon to Phoenix, which is almost 600 kilometers south of the Mexico-US border.
From Phoenix, Bolanos and his cornerman will fly to Los Angeles where they will meet up American boxing man Mike Koncz on their way to Hong Kong via Cathay Pacific.
From the former Crown Colony, the trio will take a connecting flight, also on Cathay Pacific, straight to Cebu.
“The trip from Los Angeles to the Philippines alone would take more than 15 hours and I believe that this Mexican fighter will do his very best to make his debut in the Philippines a memorable one,” said Koncz, a former lawyer who keeps himself busy giving Filipino boxers fights on American soil.
Bolanos made his debut in 1999 and is determined to break the hearts of Cebuanos and Bautista’s provincemates from Bohol this weekend as bigtime boxing returns to Cebu.
“There has never been a Mexican fighter who’s fought on Cebu soil,” said Aldeguer. “We’ve had Thais, Japanese, Koreans, Indonesians, American, and even an Australian.”
“But there’s never been a Mexican, never,” added Aldeguer, who is staging the show in partnership with the Mandaue City government headed by Mayor Teddy Ouano.
Big things are in store for Bautista, who parades a 15-0 win-loss card with 11 knockouts, that’s why a livewire Mexican foe is coming over to lock horns with him.
Bautista should employ some of the techniques he learned from Freddie Roach during a two-week training at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California, when he collides with Bolanos.
