BAUTISTA EXUDES CONFIDENCE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 04 May 2007
WBO No. 1 ranked super bantamweight Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista is exuding confidence prior to his world title eliminator against undefeated Sergio Medina of Argentina on the undercard of “The World Awaits” epic battle between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr on Sunday, Manila Time.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, respected boxing patron Tony Aldeguer said Bautista’s confidence stemmed from the fact that he was “familiar with fighting in America now and was very confident even at the press conference the other day.” Aldeguer said Bautista was getting “good mileage here.”
He said Bautista had an interview with well-known boxing writer Ace Freeman Thursday morning and another English journalist later on. Aldeguer said both Bautista and AJ “Bazooka” Banal went jogging in the morning and had breakfast at the home of his youngest son Chris in Tuscany which is a fifteen minute drive from the MGM Grand Hotel where they have been treated exceptionally well by De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions.
Aldeguer said Bautista weighed 123 ½ pounds while Banal was 116 ½ which was “very manageable.” Aldeguer said Banal “seems to be at ease” and emphasized that the exposure amd training in Puerto Rico alongside De La Hoya “did a lot of good although they really felt homesick and bored.” Aldeguer said the way De La Hoya treated them and “the intimacy gave them a lot of confidence.”
He recalled an incident when De La Hoya arrived at the MGM Grand Hotel lobby and was greeted by a huge throng of adoring fans. Aldeguer said De La Hoya saw Bautista from afar and called out “Boom Boom,” “Boom Boom” and Bautista rushed towards him but “ a burly security grabbed him and lifted ‘Boom Boom’ and put him aside but De La Hoya said ‘no, no he’s with our group’ and the security man said ‘sorry sir’ and let Bautista join De La Hoya.”
Aldeguer said he didn’t want to be accused of hyping his fighters but admitted he was amazed at how highly boxing people thought of Banal. One of the things that struck Aldeguer was the absence of any Filipinos who normally wandered around the lobby of the MGM Grand during fights of Manny Pacquiao. He attributed this to the fact that not many people can check in and buy tickets since they were very expensive and were sold out within three hours.
Aldeguer said both basketball all-time great Michael Jordan and golfing hero Tiger Woods have confirmed they will be at special ringside while Muhammad Ali hadn’t confirmed as of press time.
De La Hoya himself had earlier invited Floyd Mayweather’s father Floyd Sr who trained De La Hoya for six years to attend and reserved two tickets for him. Floyd Sr had left his son’s camp in a huff after a difference over the fighter’s remarks on a preflight TV show and his continuing word war with his brother Roger Mayweather who is Floyd’s trainer.
