END OF THE ROAD FOR BOOM-BOOM
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 21 Apr 2013
DAVAO CITY ? He has been one of the Philippines most popular and widely followed prospect. At one of point, after amassing an undefeated record of 23 victories with nearly as many knockouts, he has been touted as the next Manny Pacquiao and Manny Pacquiao himself declared it to be so. But after last night's defeat at the hands of Mexican prospect Jose 'Negro' Ramirez, Bohol's Rey 'Boom-Boom' Bautista has reached an end of the road.
?He's going to retire,? Antonio Lopez Aldeguer, ALA Gym's benevolent patriarch, told Philboxing right after Boom-Boom walked to the dressing room at the USEP Gymnasium here, with head bowed, after suffering another crushing defeat in his career. Asked why, Aldeguer, who runs a business conglomerate in the Philippines and known to everyone here as Sir ALA, answered, ?What for? We've done everything for him but he's never learned. I don't need the money for him to continue fighting? And what's the point of him continuing to fight if he has nowhere to go??
Bautista's demise started when he suffered a first round knockout loss to Mexico's Daniel Ponce de Leon in Sacramento in August, 2007, his first defeat, followed by another loss against Heriberto Ruiz in November, 2008 in Las Vegas. Hampered with injuries, Bautista, his handlers and many of his fans, somehow found a valid excuse for his losses. Bautista had surgery on his left thumb by February, 2009.
After an absence of close to one year, Bautista resumed his campaign by knocking out Marangin Marbun of Indonesia in the 7th round in October, 2009 in Cebu and since then, registered a string of 8 victories, 7 inside the distance, including a revenge victory over Heriberto Ruiz who inflicted his only other loss.
However, Bautista's fighting style never changed. His defense or lack of it, is still a glaring weakness and add to that a weak chin, then you have a recipe for disaster. On the eve of Boom-Boom's fight with Sergio Manuel Medina of Argentina at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the undercard of Oscar de la Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather Jr megafight on May 5, 2007, Puerto Rican Dante Ortiz, who handled Florante Condes's career briefly, visited me at my room at MGM Grand. Bautista was then on a tear with an undefeated record of 22 wins with 18 knockouts and was on the verge of stardom by fighting on HBO and many fans had then hopped on the Bautista bandwagon. Ortiz told me, rather dryly, that ?Boom-Boom will not go far in boxing because of his lack of defense.?
Rey 'Boom-Boom' Bautista goes down during Saturday night's fight against Jose 'Negro' Ramirez of Mexico at the USEP Gymnasium in Davao City. Photo by Dong Secuya.
This lack of defense and a weak chin came to a head during Bautista's last two fights. Paired against regional caliber fighters, Bautista, who moves up in the rankings at both the IBF and WBO, mows down the opposition, but against fighters with good boxing skills, Bautista struggles. Such is the case with his fight against Daniel Ruiz last October at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila where he won by split decision, but not after receiving a good amount of punishment. Last night's performance against Ramirez however demonstrated the worst of Boom-Boom. There is nothing stellar about Ramirez's resume but only for being a a little busier and for having some power in his punches, were enough to expose Bautista once again. Obviously, Bautista doesn't have the ability to match against the elite fighters of the division.
WRITING ON THE WALL
?That's why when I was asked about our plans for Boom-Boom, I said 'let's see what happens with this fight,'? ALA Promotions President Michael Aldeguer said. ?We see during his training... Servania, who is a lot younger than him, easily handles him in sparring. I don't know. He's now married and has a child and he's financially well off. He spend more time right now managing his business in Bohol. Maybe his mind is no longer on boxing. But really, he has limited abilities so I think it's time for him to hang up his gloves,? the younger Aldeguer said.
If indeed Bautista will now retire, he would have accumulated an outstanding record of 34 wins and 3 losses with 25 knockouts in a professional career that spanned 10 years, uprooting him from a poor kid in a little town of Candijay in Bohol where he used to scour for firewood in the hot, rocky and deserted neighborhood into a relatively secured financial status ? and he would also leave a legacy of a love-hate relationship with those who avidly followed his career.
LOVE-HATE LEGACY
Boom-Boom, who acted like a braggart during his rise to fame, no doubt draws the crowd to see his fights with his bravado. His popularity was proven once again as he was a hit coming to Davao, people asks for his autograph and photo-ops wherever he goes. But his showy attitude had also turned off a lot of fans. Many of those who watch his fights have an ambivalent attitude toward him. As many people who wants to see him win, maybe the same number of people also wants him to lose; or maybe, the same people wants to see him win, wants to see him lose at the same time.
This attitude was dramatically displayed during the course of last night's fight against Ramirez. After Boom-Boom was knocked down in the first round and survived, the packed audience at the 8,000 capacity USEP Gymnasium, tried to rally Boom-Boom by chanting his name in the next several rounds. But towards the beginning of the 9th round, after it was clear that Boom-Boom was now totally outclassed by Ramirez, and that Boom-Boom himself had played dirty as a form of desperation, the crowd suddenly begun chanting RA-MI-REZ, RA-MI-REZ to rally the visiting Mexican!
During last Thursday's press conference at the Royal Mandaya Hotel here, Bautista told everyone, ?Para sa tanan nga nag-ampo nga modaog ko ug para sa tanan nga wala mag-ampo, daghang salamat.?
(To all those who pray that I will win, and to all those who do not pray, thank you.)
Amen, Boom-Boom.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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