ASTON PALICTE MAKES A SMASHING LAS VEGAS DEBUT
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 19 Dec 2016
?The winner by split decision is from Bago, Cebu, Aston Palicte? so said the ring announcer after 10 hard fought rounds of boxing that featured heavy exchanges phone booth style last night at the D Hotel Event Center at downtown Las Vegas, a huge chilly tent that was barely heated by the giant halogen lights of the center boxing ring.
With that, Palicte (22-2-0, 18KO) wins the NABF belt previously held by the now ex-champion and formerly undefeated Oscar Cantu (14-1-0, 1KO) of Kingsville, Texas as well as the vacant WBO International Continental belt.
Cantu came in the fight with apparent mind set to dominate Palicte with his excellent boxing style honed by his amateur days where he was said to be a dominant figure. But unfortunately, he and his Team failed to include in the equation that Palicte is really hungry for a victory. As soon as he tasted a solid left counter from Palicte in round 2, his game plan changed. He was forced to slug it out in closed quarters.
?I promised my manager Jason Soong that if he found me another fight abroad, I will train extremely hard and leave everything in the ring on fight night? he said in the vernacular as we sat in the holding area while the main undercard fight was going on. ?So, tonight is the night? he added. ?to pay him back for all the good work and the money he spent for me to get to this point?.
Cantu, to the surprise of Team Palicte exhibited a tremendous Latin heart and more importantly, a granite chin to withstand the booming counters from the Filipino slugger. ?He was a smart boxer,? Palicte said after the fight, but also a ?little bit dirty especially after he got frustrated by the action. He tried to trip me several times and he pushed me down and wrestled me to the canvas,? said Palicte
The ultimate game changer in the slugfest came in the 10th round. Palicte, using his experience from his more than 20 fights, dominated the exchanges and used ring smarts to keep away from Cantu who at that point knew he needed a great round 10 to salvage a victory. He waged a desperate attempt to chase down Palicte.
But for Cantu, it was all for naught.
With that, two judges gave Palicte the win, overriding the third judge who obviously showed bias for the ex-champion. ?That is boxing?, someone said after the fight. ?Sometimes even if you dominate, someone will still think you didn?t do enough to win?. ?But it didn?t matter?, I shot back at him. ?A win is a win?.
After the fight, the people from the Roy Jones Promotions invited the whole Team to an after fight party at the Hyde Bar inside the Bellagio Casino Resort. Too bad however, inside the bar, it was so loud that you won?t hear a train if it came through. So we just stayed a short while for some photo ops and called it a night.
Palicte is scheduled to meet more media people and reps from Roy Jones before the Team motors back to LA late Sunday morning.
It will be a long cold ride back. But, it really does not matter. No matter how long is the ride and how cold it gets, the two new belts compensates for everything.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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