Judgement at the Waterfront Fighters Meet the Press
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 12 Mar 2009
The main protagonists for the ?Judgement at the Waterfront? fight card this coming Saturday had a press conference Thursday noon at the fight venue, the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City.
Z ?The Dream? Gorres and Roberto ?Mako? Leyva promise to add another bloody chapter to the Philippines vs. Mexico boxing rivalry. They will be fighting for the vacant WBO Oriental Bantamweight title.
Gorres, in his 8 year career, has won the OPBF superflyweight title and the IBF Intercontinental superflyweight belt. He is an uncrowned world champion who has gone the distance with the likes of Fernando Montiel and Vic Darchinyan. His ?hit but don?t get hit? style of boxing sets him apart from the brawlers proliferating in the Philippine boxing scene.
Gorres ( 28W-2L-2D, 15 KO?s) will be fighting for the first time as a bantamweight. His opponent, Mexico?s Roberto Carlos Leyva (25W- 8L-1D, 20 KO?s) won the IBF mimimumweight title via unanimous decision over Daniel Reyes of Columbia. He lost the title 16 months later to Colombian Miguel Barrera. In his 11 year pro career, he has faced a lot of name fighters. Leyva has lost to the likes of Ivan Calderon and Edgar Sosa in world title fights. Seven years ago, Leyva beat Filipino Manny Melchor by unanimous decision in a fight held in Mexico.
Gorres said that he is stronger and feels more comfortable now at 118 lbs. Leyva on the other hand said that Gorres and the Filipino fans can expect a ring war from him. Like all Mexican boxers, he will leave everything in the ring. He said that Gorres? name became known in Mexico because of the Montiel fight. He also said the opportunity to fight the Filipino at 118 lbs. was too good to turn down. He has trained for two months with technical fighters under former champ Raul Perez.
It will be interesting to see if Gorres will have more pop in his punches at bantamweight now that he does not have to drain more weight.
In the co-main event, undefeated WBO Asia Pacific 105 lb. titlist Milan Melindo (17W-0l, 5 KO?S) will be facing former IBF minimumweight champ Muhammad Rachman of Indonesia.
The 37 year old Rachman is a battled hardened 16 year pro with 73 fights under his belt (62W-6L-5D, 31 KO?s). He has fought only twice outside of Indonesia and that was 13 years ago in Thailand.
The 21 year old Melindo turned pro in September 2005. He is ranked number one by the WBO and is in the top ten of the WBA and WBC rankings. He relishes this chance to face a quality opponent so he can show the world how good he really is. He did not take it well when asked about Rachman?s comments that this bout is just a ?tune-up?. Rachman said he wants to win by KO considering he is fighting in Melindo?s home town. Melindo said that is he gets knocked down, he will get up and knock him down back.
Other features fights include bantamweight Michael Domingo against Monico Laurente of the Elorde Stable. Domingo has now tested negative for hepatitis B and said that he just recovered spontaneously without any symptoms and never took medications for his ailment.
Superfeatherweight James Bacon will be gunning for vengeance in a grudge match against William Jorge. Fans are advised to come at 6 PM this Saturday. There are also four more bouts in the undercard and the first bout starts at 6:25 PM .
Top photo (L-R): ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer, Z Gorres, Mako Leyva and WBO Vice-President Leon Panoncillo during today's presscon at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City.
L-R: ALA President Michael Aldeguer, Milan Melindo, Muhammad Rachman and WBO Vice-President Leon Panoncillo.
L-R: ALA trainer Edito Villamor, Milan Melindo, Z Gorrez, ALA President Michael Aldeguer, WBO Vice-President Leon Panoncillo, Mako Leyva, Journalist Lee Bates, Muhammad Rachman and Rachman's manager Martinez Dos Santos.
Photos by Dong Secuya.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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