Victorious Sunday for RP boxing

Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista and A.J. “Bazooka” Banal defeated their respective Mexican rivals Sunday afternoon at the Araneta Coliseum to further boost their respective careers.

Bautista, who with Banal is managed by the father-son team of Tony and Michael Aldeguer, threw everything but the kitchen sink to win by unanimous decision over tough Mexican Antonio “Barrio” Meza to successfully defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO) Intercontinental title. Bautista won on all the judges’ scorecards, 118 - 110, 117 -111 and 116 - 112. Bautista’s record now stands at 24-1-0 (17 KOs) while Meza’s is 23-3-0 (16 KOs).

Earlier, Bautista’s stablemate, Banal defeated Mexico’s Jovanny “Bambino” Soto via a ninth round TKO. Banal peppered the game Mexican with body shots throughout most of the fight but Soto was unmindful of Banal’s artillery. In the ninth round, however, Banal caught the Mexican with a right cross for the mandatory count. Soto was up at eight but Banal swarmed all over the Mexican who by then was leaning helplessly on the ropes prompting the referee to stop the carnage.

While Bautista’s win was convincing, he would probably need two or three more fights before facing the likes of WBO super bantamweight champion David Ponce de Leon who knocked him out in the first round last August. It was quite apparent that Bautista’s defense was a bit rusty. It may have been, with the exception of the De Leon fight, the encounter where Bautista got hit more times in his career.

Fight referee (and therefore the closest to the two fighters), Bruce McTavish, although admitting that Bautista won convincingly, noted that Boom Boom was a perfect target for Meza’s left hook, especially when the Mexican switched from orthodox to southpaw stance.

The Bautista defense was the 146th title fight appearance of McTavish as the third man in the ring. The Angeles City-based McTavish who has lived in the Philippines for the last 40 years, also noted the need for several more fights for Bautista before the 21-year-old Boholano faces higher-ranked fighters.

The Bautista-Meza fight, hyped as “Payback” was the main event in the maiden boxing promotion of Third Force. An obviously elated Tony Aldeguer pointed out that the promotion attracted a paying crowd of 7,450 that included former President Joseph Estrada (who received a resounding applause after raising the hand of the victorious Bautista after the bout), Estrada’s son, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, former senators Robert Jaworski and Ramon Revilla Sr., former Rizal governor Ito Ynares, boxing promoter Wakee Salud, former Pasig City mayor Mario Raymundo and civil society activist RC Constantino.

Asked about his plans for Bautista and Banal, Aldeguer could only say that “we’re waiting for some developments.” He did,  however, give credit to the involvement of businessman and ABC 5 owner Tony Boy Cojuangco which “shows what positive things can happen to boxing if you have credible persons supporting it.”

ABC 5 did the TV production of the fight, the first time the network ventured into what is considered big-time boxing by Philippine standards.

The Cebu-based businessman and boxing philanthropist, also clarified reports that tended to show that several people were managing Bautista. “I don’t know who is claiming what, but the facts are clear — Boom Boom’s registered manager in the US is my son Michael and I am the registered manager of Bautista in the Philippines and we have a promotional contract with Golden Boy Promotions (of Oscar de la Hoya).”

The card included a live telecast of San Leandro, California-based Filipino Nonito Donaire’s defense of his International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organization flyweight title against Mexican Luis Maldonado at the Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Donaire punished the well-prepared and conditioned Maldonado before fashioning out an eighth round TKO.

The victory of Donaire will certainly further boost his stock among discriminating Filipino boxing aficionados who started to seriously regard Nonito as their own only after the latter upset the highly-regarded Vic Darchinyan several months ago.