ALA shortchanged by Mexican agent Genaro Garcia who came to Bohol not the one contracted to fight Bautista

CEBU, Philippines - Calling it an unfortunate incident, ALA Promotions President and CEO Michael P. Aldeguer felt bad they were shortchanged by their Mexican matchmaker/agent Hugo Correa for sending the wrong Genaro Garcia who fought against IBF Intercontinental featherweight champion Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista in the main event of last night's "Pinoy Pride XII:Bakbakan sa Bohol" at the Carlos P. Garcia Sports Complex in Tagbilaran City.

"We were mislead to believe that what we got is the Genaro Garcia we wanted but the agent (Correa) sent another Genaro Garcia," said Aldeguer in a telephone call to The Freeman. "It's very unfortunate, but what happened was beyond our control."

Aldeguer said they saw nothing wrong at first because the Mexican fighter brought with him the pertinent documents.

"His papers were complete. When he look at his passport, it bears the name Genaro Garcia. He also has an authorization from the Mexican boxing commission so we thought everything was okay," said Aldeguer.

But Aldeguer said they were already having suspicions when the Mexican told them during the pre-fight news conference that it was not him who appeared in the promotional posters.

They also noticed that Garcia appeared bigger than they expected. In fact, Garcia was four pounds overweight during the weigh-in last Friday at the Island City Mall.

Aldeguer said their doubts on the real identity of the Mexican was further fanned when Garcia said during the presscon that Hector Velasquez was the toughest figher he has ever fought.        

Upon thorough check at boxrec.com, which has a comprehensive record of all boxers in the world dead or alive, Aldeguer said they found out that the Genaro Garcia - the top caliber fighter they negotiated with Correa to face Bautista - has not fought against Velasquez.

It turned out that the Garcia who arrived in Bohol was Genaro 'Panterita" Garcia, a lightweight with a 10-11 (6KOs) record, and not the Genaro "Poblanito" Garcia who has fought eight world champions and with an impressive 37-8 (21KOs) record they contracted to slug it out with Bautista.

Veteran referee Bruce McTavish was also a crucial factor in identifying that the one who came here is the wrong one, mainly because of his different physical resemblance from the real Genaro Garcia.

McTavish is so sure of that because he was the third man on the ring when "Poblanito" Garcia battled Japanese champion Toshiaki Nishioka for the WBC super bantamweight belt on January 3, 2009 at the Pacifico Arena in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. Nishioka won by 12th round TKO.

“We want to give Bautista a quality fighter, but instead they send us the wrong one. He's not the guy we expected and we paid for. It's something we did not want to happen. That's why we really get all the facts straight because we don't want to fool the public. We owe it to them," said Aldeguer.

“This is a lesson for us, we are all victims here. We felt really bad, this is the last thing you don’t want to happen in promoting a fight,” he added.

For his part, ALA Boxing Gym founder Antonio ‘Bidoy’ Aldeguer admitted that he felt depressed for what had happened.

“I felt very sad. We were shortchanged. It's malicious," said Aldeguer. “This is the first time that it has ever happened to us,” he said. “In my 30 years in boxing, I never lied to the public. We are all in this, we are all victims.”

The bout pushed through as scheduled but the result was not available as of this writing. (FREEMAN)