Trainer non-pareil Freddie Roach said unbeaten Filipino super-bantamweight Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista is indeed a jewel “but I will not rush him” into fighting for the world title. “The kid’s just 19 years old and maybe after one year, he’d be ready,” said Roach, who was in Bautista’s corner when the Candijay, Bohol native took apart Roberto Bonilla of Nicaragua in the third round over the weekend at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. What Roach, chief trainer of Manny Pacquiao, liked very much from Bautista was “how he’d want to kill you with every punch that he throws.” Bautista sports a 20-0 win-loss card with 15 knockouts.
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Fighting under the banner of Tony Aldeguer’s ALA Boxing Club of Cebu, Bautista is being promoted by Oscar dela Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions (GBP), which forged a partnership with Aldeguer last March when GBP executive Eric Gomez visited Cebu and sealed the deal with Aldeguer, right-hand man Sammy Gello-ani and adviser and Tagbilaran City mayor Dan Neri Lim. Next up for the heavy-handed Bautista is Mexican Alejandro Montiel on July 2 at the Araneta Coliseum in the Philippines underneath the Pacquiao-Oscar Larios headliner.
