Learning from Tony Aldeguer

It was hyped as "The World Awaits" and indeed the world did wait for Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather to lock horns Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila) before a sold-out crowd of 16,700 at the MGM Grand Center in Las Vegas and a possible record pay-per-view and closed circuit audiences. After the smoke from the battle cleared, Mayweather won by a split decision (and thus became world champion in five different weight classes) over Golden Boy who was champion in six divisions.

By capturing De La Hoya’s World Council 154-pound super welterweight title, the record of Mayweather improved to 38 – 0 (24 by knockout) over a 10-year professional career while De La Hoya fell to 38 – 5 (30) in his 14 years on the ring. It was the third loss for De La Hoya, 34, in his last five bouts and reignited talks of retirement.

Mayweather won by scores of 116 – 112 (Chuck Giampa) and 115 – 113 (Jerry Roth). The third judge, Tom Kaczmarek scored it in favor of De La Hoya, 115 – 113. I also thought De La Hoya did enough to win over Mayweather. I scored it 116 – 113 for De La Hoya with the last round going to the Golden Boy.

De La Hoya was the aggressor and tried to make a fight out of the encounter by pressing Mayweather who chose to counterpunch. Were it not for De La Hoya’s bringing the fight to Mayweather, the much publicized promotion could have turned into a sleeper. As De La Hoya stated, "If I didn’t press the fight, there wouldn’t have been any fight."

Floyd Mayweather Sr. who split from his son Floyd Jr. during training camp after being reunited earlier with the latter, thought that De La Hoya won, according to Dan Rafel, boxing writer for ESPN.com: "I thought Oscar won the fight. My son had better defense and caught a lot of punches, but I think Oscar pressed the fight and did enough to win." When asked however by Larry Merchant of HBO whether he really thought De La Hoya won, Floyd Sr. hedged saying, "Well, I think it was a really good fight."

At the end of the fight, Mayweather bragged about how cerebral a boxer he was by declaring that (his victory) "was a masterpiece of boxing" and crowned himself as the "best fighter of this era."

For Filipinos, the main event could have very well been the Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista – Sergio Medina World Boxing Organization (WBO) super bantamweight eliminator.

Bautista, who is from the stable of sportsman-philanthropist Tony Aldeguer of Cebu, carved out a unanimous decision over the brash Argentine but only after surviving a technical knockdown in the seventh round. The 20-year-old Boholano leaned against and clung to the ropes after he caught the reigning WBO Asia-Pacific Champion with a right followed by a left hook. Earlier, in the sixth round, Bautista nailed Medina with a left to score a knock down with about a minute left in the round.

After having recovered from the scary knockdown, Bautista reassumed control of the fight hammering Medina to the canvas with a right, this time in the 11th round. The win improved Bautista to 23 – 0 while Medina, who, in my opinion has still a future ahead of him despite the loss, dropped to 28 – 1. Bautista is expected to challenge David Ponce de Leon for the latter’s WBO title.

Completing Aldeguer’s (and Sammy Gello-ani’s) victory march that evening was AJ Banal’s win by unanimous decision over Mexican Juan Rosas in the junior bantamweight division.

Bautista and Banal are two of the Philippines’ hottest boxing stars and both are expected to follow Manny Pacquiao’s footsteps. The young lions of Aldeguer are contributing to the renaissance of Philippine boxing which was triggered by the success of Pacquiao. This rebirth is not part of any long range master plan of government but more a coincidental convergence of events. It would be good for government to turn to people like Aldeguer for advice if it wants a sustainable program that does not depend on coincidences and accidents of history.