~Photo Credits Goes to ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images~Last Sunday, I can only scream at the top of my lungs witnessing Rey Bautista struggled a couple of times against Sergio Medina in a fight highly valuable for both boxers.
Battle of Zero Losses
It was a match of the undefeated. Rey, a native Boholano from Tagbilaran, sported an umblemished record of 22 wins, 0 losses, 17 KOs while Sergio "Rocky" Medina from Argentina was tucked in his wallet with 28 wins, 0 defeats and 16 KOs.
Channel 2 was the one who bought all the rights in showing the bout, featuring the main event between Mayweather Jr and Dela Hoya. As expected, it was packed with galores of advertisements twice or even thrice longer the duration than each round. Good thing I have with me a Sudoku puzzle to while away the commercials.
2-3-1
For majority of the Filipino fans who were glued on the tv sets, they may have observed a glitch on their tv screen. Round 2 was shown first before round 1, followed by round 3. I know I was dizzy the night before because of a couple of drinks with my kababata's, but I wasn't drunk the morning after. Maybe showing round 2 connotes to being channel 2 or number 2, that I can only guess. Somehow, that made the fight quite confusing on who's above and leading at the beginning of the match.
Since I highly regard Boom Boom to follow the footsteps of Pacquiao, and even better than him, I was quite rattled at the course of the fight. Medina is not a boxer you would take for granted. He did give Bautista, the fans and me, a chill on the nerves and spine.
Hardly a knock-out
I was expecting a knockout early in the rounds because Boom Boom is a power puncher. But it only came on the sixth round after a series of flurry exchanges. Bautista managed to corner Medina a couple of instances but the referee may have force Bautista lose his concentration. He persistenly warned Boom Boom to "go up" with his punches in the early rounds, even stopping Bautista in his tracks and finger point him like a kid who stole a candy in a candy store.
Round 5 came the deduction but instead of losing focus, a left uppercut in the 6th round made Medina scuffling backwards and knockdown was ruled. Although the replays showed a slightly different story, the punch seemed to have not clearly landed solidly on Medina's mestizo face.
I thought the referee was to stop the fight
Rocky fought back and rocked Boom Boom to his senses. An avalanche of punches came through him, and into the corner. The punches were drawn and received with a wide open face of Bautista. His right hand was on the ropes. Punches came like bullets of M-16, and his head gobbled back and forth. It appeared as though Boom Boom was helpless and the referee stopping the fight soon. However, referee instead came to the rescue and pulled a busy Rocky from annihilating Boom Boom in the corner and started the mandatory 8 count. It ruled there was a KO because he was clinging into the ropes. He struggled to keep standing in the rest of the round as Medina failed to close the round with another KO.
Date with Destiny
With the match looming to an end, Boom Boom finally end all worries by letting a solid right hook that shook Rocky down on his butt. The match was declared a UD with all three judges’ scores in favor of the Boholano.
Rey improved his record to 23-0-0 (17 KOs) and awarded a crack at the title belt against DeLeon who recently defeated Gerry Peñalosa. That’s a match worth waiting and I suggest he seriously train hard and further develop his power punch even more.
