(Bohol, Philippines)?With close to five decades in the fight game, and having refereed literally thousands of matches and 170 world title fights, Bruce McTavish has just about seen it all in the sometimes sordid and quirky world of professional boxing. But as Bruce and I were sharing a few laughs over drinks on a hot and muggy night recently in Tagbilaran, Bohol, things were about to get very strange in the fight game. As in unbelievably strange.
It was just 24 hours before what promised to be a terrific battle in front of 30,000 people in this fast growing Visayan province, and an audience of millions watching on the Philippines biggest TV network, ABS-CBN. The Philippines biggest promotional outfit, ALA Promotions, which is based in Cebu, was bringing Bohol native Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista back to the province for the first time in 7 years to fight in front of his adoring ?kababayans?.
The 25 year old?s promising career has been a roller coaster ride up to this point. Six years back he was declared by some to be ?the next Manny Pacquaio,? and he was perhaps pushed along too fast. In 2007 Bautista fought for the WBO Jr. Featherweight title and got humiliated in a first round knockout at the hands of slick Mexcian Daniel Ponce Deleon.
Since then, Bautista has steadily rebuilt his career, but he?s also been plagued by nagging injuries. In the last year and half he has fought injury free and the promise of future glory has returned for ?Boom Boom.?
In order to help rebuild Bautista?s confidence and try to stretch his abilities, ALA has fed Bautista a steady diet of decent but beatable opponents, from Thais to Mexicans. He?s won his last six fights. Now, however, it was time for Bautista to prove that he could step up to the big leagues.
Enter Mexican Genaro ?Poblanito? Garcia. Garcia appeared to be just what ALA was looking for in an opponent for Bautista. He had a record of 38-8 with 22 knockouts and had fought eight world champions. His obvious experience and toughness would be a perfect test for Bautista. And he was Mexican. A Philippines vs. Mexico clash is always a good seller. Add in the ?homecoming? factor, and it had the makings of the perfect boxing promotion.
McTavish had actually refereed Garcia in Japan in 2009 and he confirmed that the Mexican was one tough hombre. I wasn?t so sure. Earlier in the day at the official weigh-in at the ICM mall in Tagbilaran, ?which Bruce had missed due to a late arriving flight?Garcia didn?t appear to be much of anything. The short and squat Mexican came in four pounds over the 128 pound limit and instead of trying to shed the weight, he went upstairs to the food court to chow down. Garcia would be penalized by having to wear 12 ounce gloves instead of 8 oz. gloves and would have his purse reduced by 20%. It seemed a bit of a downer for what had promised to be a good fight. But we figured that Garcia surely would make a war out of it anyway.
Then the call came.
?They?re picking us up,? McTavish said, referring to ALA?s driver.
?Why, what?s going on?? I asked.
?They?re not sure Garcia is the real Garcia.?
Ten minutes later the JJ Seafood Village restaurant in Tagbilaran was a buzz of activity as promoter Michael Aldeguer and several assistants, along with about a dozen Cebu-based media guys stood around talking animatedly. The Garcia at the weigh-in earlier, the reporters said, didn?t appear to be the Garcia that was contracted by ALA to fight Bautista.
The first notion that something wasn?t right came when a reporter had asked Garcia what had been his toughest fight to date. Garcia, who could only speak Spanish, mentioned the name Hector Velasquez. The reporters looked at Garcia?s record at the online boxing records site boxrec.com and didn?t see the name Hector Velasquez on the list.
The ball started rolling from there. Somebody noticed that the photo of Genaro Garcia on the promotional banners didn?t look like the Genaro Garcia posing with Bautista on stage. Of course they didn?t put the clue together because they figured the Mexican might have just changed his hairstyle. The reporters then recalled that a few days earlier, Garcia rolled into town from Mexico all by himself, which seemed very strange as he was supposed to be travelling with his trainer.
But nobody could be 100% sure. There are 100?s of fights a week all over the world and some may not be recorded on boxrec.com. And Garcia wasn?t famous enough to be a known face to anyone outside of Mexico.
Referee Bruce McTavish identifies the “fake” Genaro Garcia. Looking on is Garcia’s Cebu based assistant, Mike Lopez
But of course McTavish would know as he was in the ring with Garcia three years prior. Several minutes later Garcia appeared at the restaurant accompanied by a Spanish speaking assistant who lived in Cebu, Mike Lopez. Garcia, looking nervous, entered the scrum of curious reporters and faced McTavish. McTavish stared at Garcia?s face for about 15 seconds, then shook his head.
?No, That?s not Garcia,? McTavish said. ?I?ve never seen this kid.? Lopez asked ?Garcia? if he?d ever seen McTavish. The kid shook his head no.
To say that there was disbelief in the air would be the understatement of the year. 24 hours before one of their biggest ever fight cards, ALA Promotions had an imposter in their midst.
What followed over the next 15 hours was a flurry of incredulous questions, angry phone calls and heated discussion that was part CSI detective drama, part hand wringing, and part high-profile media damage control.
As it turned out, the Mexican in Cebu was indeed a ?Genaro Garcia,? as his passport indicated, and he was a boxer, but his supposed record of 10 wins and 11 losses indicated he was basically a bum, unlike the other Genaro Garcia.
With the Cebu press on hand, ALA Promotions went into damage control after the fake Garcia was exposed
Eventually ALA Promotions figured out that they had been scammed by a Mexican boxing agent named Victor Hugo Correa, whom they had done business with two times before. Even the fake Garcia, who admitted never meeting Correa, seemed to be a victim as well as he believed he was the one truly contracted to fight Bautista.
But while they had plenty of questions that needed answering, the more immediate problem was what to do about the fight. ALA had invested millions of pesos in the promotion, as had ABS-CBN. Unless ALA came clean, they would be seen as perpetrating their own fraud on the public. Years of hard earned reputations were hanging in the balance.
And so they decided to do the only thing they could do; own up to the mess, refund everyone?s money, and make the entire fight card for free. Since the fake Garcia was at least a boxer of some sort, the fight with Bautista would push ahead.
Over 30,000 people showed up at the Carlos P. Garcia stadium in Bohol, and the 9 fight card proved to be very entertaining. As expected, the main event was a farce. Garcia looked as inept as an alley cat on tequila, charging in with his head down, throwing and missing wildly. Bautista was so shocked by Garcia?s ineptitude he didn?t throw a single punch in the first round.
Bautista decided to put an end to the mess in round 2. The Filipino dug in some body shots and Garcia fell to the floor. The Mexican warily stood up only to be floored again and stayed down as McTavish counted to ten, as boos and jeers rained down from a disappointed crowd.
As expected after the ruse was discovered, the fight was a farce with Bautista knocking out the fake Garcia in the 2nd round
?We are taking legal action against the person behind this act of deceit,? said ALA boss Michael Aldeguer afterward. As for the call to refund all ticket sales, which led to a loss of over a million pesos, Aldegues said: ?The integrity of ALA was more important than anything. We felt that this was something that we owed to the public.?
?The Garcia they sent here wasn?t the Garcia that I was supposed to fight,? a disappointed Bautista said afterward. ?But I still chose to continue to show everyone that Boholanos are brave. I want to fight here again and inspire people with my fights.?
He might get the chance in the coming months. And this time with the man who was supposed to be facing him across the ring. Aldeguer said he is hoping to bring in the actual Genaro Garcia in May to finally fight Bautista.
And this time you can guarantee it?ll be for real.
Email your comments to: [email protected]
PI Sports International, now in its third month of publication, is the only all-sports newspaper in the Philippines which caters directly to the vast foreign, tourist and high end Filipino market. The paper is distributed FREE throughout Angeles City, Subic, La Union, Manila, Makati, Cebu, Puerto Galera and other places.
To read the online digital version of the March Issue of PI Sports International, please click the cover image below.
