IT'S CONFIRMED: BOOM BOOM? ON PACQUIAO-DE LA HOYA UNDERCARD
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 10 Sep 2008
WBO Intercontinental super bantamweight champion Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista will see action on the undercard of Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao?s battle with ?The Golden Boy? Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6.
In an overseas telephone conversation Tuesday (Manila Time) Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez confirmed the fight will take place and that he had already spoken to Michael Aldeguer of the famed ALA Gym.
Gomez had told www.insidesports.ph, Manila Standard and Viva Sports last Wednesday that Golden Boy Promotions was going to put Bautista on the show and they were ?trying to get him a good fight against someone in the rankings, someone who could give him a good fight.?
Gomez said this would be the first time a Filipino will fight on a De La Hoya undercard promoted by Golden Boy.
In fact we reminded Gomez that Pacquiao himself won the IBF super bantamweight title in a spectacular sixth round stoppage of Lelhonolo Ledwaba on the undercard of the De La Hoya ? Javier Castillejo light middleweight title fight at the MGM Grand on June 23, 2001 on a Top Rank promotion telecast by Viva Vintage Sports in the Philippines.
Gomez said Golden Boy Promotions had confidence in Bautista but they were ?not going after a world champion for his next fight but want to do a fight that is important to set him up for his next couple of fights before fighting for the title.?
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum earlier told www.insidesports.ph he had no objections at all to Bautista fighting on the undercard and said if they were interested he could always fight WBO champion Juan Manuel Lopez. But we ourselves told Arum, Bautista was not yet ready to battle a fighter of the caliber of Lopez.
Lopez won the WBO 122 pound title with a stunning first round knockout of the menacing Daniel Ponce De Leon who had himself stopped Bautista in the first round in the Philippines-Mexico World Cup on August 11, 2007 in Sacramento.
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