LOS ANGELES – It was early afternoon and the rays of a blazing California sun was bouncing off the giant hotel windows of the world-famous Westin Bonaventure along Figueroa St., right in the heart of downtown LA and just a stone’s throw away from where Kobe Bryant holds court.
Inside Room 1120, though, it was pitch dark. The red curtains were completely shut, while the air humming from a centralized air-conditioning system kept the room very cool, shielded from the heat of a 90-degree temperature that had burned people 11 stories below.
On a king-size bed lurking beneath a mammoth wall mirror, Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista laid peacefully. Oh, no, I didn’t rouse him from a deep slumber. He was just resting, idling along, just like any other 19-year-old would do on a hot, lazy summer afternoon.
But wait, Rey is not your typical 19-year-old. He is a young man in a brutal grown man’s sport. Yet he thrives, and he excels because he has fists that howl with the naked fury of a pacific typhoon. That’s why they call him Boom Boom, an undefeated force of nature with a 19-0 slate spiced with 14 vicious KOs.
And so here he is, barely legal in age, but raking modest dollars in pay, and laying his head in the marsmallow-soft pillows of a hotel room that costs $189 a night at this time of year. Thanks to those pair of powerful fists, Rey is quickly finding his way through boxing’s forest of acronyms – the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO, etc.
And early tonight at the Staples Center, in the ostentatious stage of a Barrera undercard, Boom Boom will pound the doors of greatness with his angry fists. Standing in Rey’s way is a gritty 31-year-old Nicaraguan named Roberto Bonilla, who totes a 23-7 record with 14 KOs.
I saw Bonilla at the weigh-in yesterday. He loomed at 5-foot-6 and checked in at a healthy 121 pounds. To me, the Nicaraguan from Ciudad Sandino looks like trouble. But to Rey, Bonilla is just another rung in the long ladder of success.
Parsing his words carefully so he wouldn’t come across as arrogant, Boom Boom said he’s confident he can beat the bejesus out of Bonilla. “Andam na ko, sir. Dugay nakong nag-paabot nga makadula. (I’m rearing to go. I’ve been waiting for a fight for sometime now).”
While a long inactivity may have rusted Boom Boom’’s armor a bit, his handlers are not worried. “He has sparred for over 50 rounds since coming to the US a month ago and over 100 overall,” said Michael Aldeguer of Team Bautista.
Judging from his sculpted looks, the bulging biceps and the ridiculously carved abs, Boom Boom looks absolutely physically ready to fight. But is he mentally up to it?
Will the glare of the international spotlight make him squint?
He’s up to those tasks, too. In fact, Rey is looser these days, looser than he’s ever been before. Although he still trains six days a week, jogging only on Sundays, he gets some time off occasionally and uses it to hang around a Vermont St. store where he can go to the Internet, mingle with Pinoys and be an average teenager.
He still misses home, but not as rabidly as he used to, like that time in San Diego where he bawled over the phone. He then shows me his Nokia cellphone where a photo of his parents flashed. A smile creases across his innocent face.
He tinkers with his cellphone some more and the voice of a young girl breaks into a song. Boom Boom explodes in delirious bliss, and he proudly tells me that it’s his three-year-old sister Karyll singing.
If there’s one word to best describe Rey, it’s happy. He’s happy with the way his career is going. Happy with those around him, and just happy to be alive.
And so today, Rey is more than happy to throw around the pair of missiles they call his hands.
Man, I hope Roberto Bonilla knows how to duck.
