SOMETIMES, what separates the feral pleasure we derive from witnessing an exciting knockout from the abject horror of seeing a fatal beat-down on top of a boxing ring is one fine, iridescent line.
Last Sunday, referee Danrex Tapdasan was made to walk that line and had to dispense a judgment call in the AJ Banal-Raul Hidalgo fight.
With about 30 seconds left in a first round, which had been dominated and controlled by Banal, the latter suddenly landed an overhand left smack on the right side of Hidalgo?s head.
Almost immediately, Hidalgo?s brain short-circuited and he reacted strangely. He seemed to lose control over his faculties as his body contorted and convulsed for a few seconds.
All the while he was standing up with his head down. At ringside, it all happened too fast and seemed almost surreal.
Atty. Tapdasan immediately stepped in to call a halt in what turned out be an impressive win for Banal, but an anticlimactic main event.
IT?S A CLASS THING. My compa?ero was correct to err?if you may call it that?on the side of caution.
Safety of the fighters is the paramount concern of the referee and I cannot ascribe any fault to his action. Here?s why.
Hidalgo?though appearing to have respectable credentials, coming in with a record of 16 wins, five losses and 12 knockouts?fought exclusively in Mexico his whole career.
Not to denigrate our Mexican brethren who are after all, known for their awesome abilities on top of the ring, but it?s difficult to determine the level and caliber of a fighter who has fought local opposition exclusively.
Of course, anything can happen in a fight, but it?s like opening a box of chocolates where, as the adage goes, you don?t know what you?re going to get.
Ergo, unless we actually see him in the fight, we will never know whether or not he belonged in the same ring with Banal.
?Bazooka? has been in there with top caliber opposition, and has fought two world champions in Rafael Concepcion and Luis Alberto Perez.
Apparently, based on that brief two- minute battle, Hidalgo was sadly not in Banal?s class and the punch that wobbled him and made him look like a business executive who had four shots of Johnnie Black for lunch, might have actually saved him from further damage.
Another factor could be his lack of conditioning as he could still have been suffering from the effects of arriving only a few days before the fight and trying to make the weight.
Whatever the case, these are not excuses as it is the fighter?s obligation to be in the best shape he can be, especially in what could have been the biggest fight in his career up to that point.
However, these issues compound the risks a fighter faces on top of the ring and makes the job of a referee more significant.
As things stand, my compa?ero made a judgment call that happened to be the correct one.
UNDERCARD. Rocky Fuentes and Albert Pagara gave good accounts of themselves in the undercard. Rocky outboxed and outhustled the much bigger Javier Franco before catching him with a beautiful, soporific right hand in the sixth round.
Pagara demonstrated some smooth boxing and punctuated his dominance over his Thai opponent by catching him flush on the chin with a combination in the second round.
LAST ROUND. It?s on Last Rounder Stuart Cheng from Singapore. Cheers!
