DE LA HOYA BELIEVES IN BANAL, PLANS TO ATTEND BAUTISTA FIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 30 Jul 2008
?The Golden Boy? of boxing Oscar De La Hoya believes in AJ ?Bazooka? Banal and is confident the 19 year old will bounce back from his shock tenth round knockout at the hands of tough, 26 year old Panamanian Rafael ?El Torito? Concepcion last Saturday.
In an exclusive overseas telephone conversation with www.insidesports.ph, Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, De La Hoya said Banal is ?still young, still hungry.?
De La Hoya expressed confidence that the Filipino southpaw ?will be a world champion down the road.? He noted that Banal ?is a hard worker, he fights for his fans.? Plans are for Golden Boy Promotions to get Banal a few fights where ?he gets his confidence back.?
De La Hoya said there was a possible explanation for his low potassium because it sometimes happens with fighters when ?they train so hard and that was the case with Banal. He trained so hard for the fight that sometimes you get over-trained. That?s something that fighters do. But he?ll be back.?
Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista who also suffered a stunning first round knockout at the hands of Daniel Ponce De Leon in a WBO super bantamweight title fight in the Philippines vs Mexico ?World Cup? last year in Sacramento is also being nurtured back systematically in order to restore his confidence.
In his first comeback fight Bautista scored a twelve round unanimous decision against tough Antonio Meza on December 2 last year and followed this up with a second round knockout over Genaro Camargo last April 6.
The 22 year old Bautista who has a record of 25-1 with 18 knockouts defends his WBO Intercontinental super bantamweight title against 23 year old Eden Marquez who has a record of 16-3-3 with 12 knockouts at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu on August 30.
De La Hoya revealed that he would make a decision in a few days as to whether or not he will attend the Bautista fight. He said ?I will be talking to my wife Millie if we can make plans to go to the Philippines ?. De La Hoya said that hopefully by then there can be an answer regarding a possible showdown with Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao.
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