OSCAR KEEN ON TRAINING WITH 'BOOM-BOOM' AND BANAL IN PUERTO RICO!
By Salven L. Lagumbay
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 30 Mar 2007
World Boxing Council super-welterweight champion, the golden boy Oscar De la Hoya, had told the Puerto Rican media the other day that he is looking forward to seeing Filipinos Rey 'Boom Boom' Bautista and Alex John Banal in Puerto Rico, as he plans on training alongside the two undefeated ALA boys.
Next week, both Bautista and Banal, along with trainer Edito Villamor and WBC welter champ Sugar Shane Mosley and his wife Jin are slated to fly to Puerto Rico to join De la Hoya as he prepares for his May 5 super-bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"I extended an invitation to Rey Bautista and Alex John Banal," De la Hoya told the media last Wednesday during the first of a series of weekly telephone conferences that will be conducted for this pay-per-view event.
"Because I am a veteran, I feel that I benefit from the presence of these young people," De la Hoya added. "They stimulate me to double my effort... to run more for more and spend more time in the races, not to be left behind because we heard Bautista and Banal can run really fast."
Both Bautista (22-0, 17 KO's) and Banal (12-0, 10 KO's), who are currently in Los Angeles training at the Wild Card Gym, are also slated to see action on the undercard of the De la Hoya-Mayweather clash, touted as the richest boxing event in the history of the sport which has already broken all gate record in Las Vegas history.
Bautista will face another undefeated fighter in Sergio Manuel Medina (28-0, 16 KO's), who hails from Salta, Argentina in a 12-round eliminator for the right to challenge WBO superbantam king Daniel Ponce De Leon.
Banal, for his part, will take on a soon-to-be-announced foe.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salven L. Lagumbay.
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