By Dong Secuya –

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DUBAI – Filipino boxers Genesis ‘Azukal’ Servania, ‘King’ Arthur Villanueva and Rey ‘Boom-Boom’ Bautista won their respective fights against Latino opponents in the ‘Pinoy Pride XXVII – Duel in Dubai’ Friday night at the Dubai World Trade Center here to the delight of a full house mostly Filipino crowd who treated the evening’s event like a big party.

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Servania’s opponent, Jose ‘Matador’ Cabrera from Mexico, quit at the beginning of the 10th round to give Servania the TKO victory and retained his WBO Intercontinental super bantamweight title. True to his monicker, Cabrera’s stance was like a matador who allowed Servania to throw the first punch before throwing his own counters. Servania, however, timed his punches perfectly and caught Cabrera with a left-right combination that sent Cabrera down to the canvas in the second round. In the third round, Servania, sensing Cabrera was hurt, continued to put pressure as he punished Cabrera with left crosses and looping rights. At the end of the round, Referee Danrex Tapdasan went to Cabrera’s corner and summoned the ring physician to check Cabrera’s condition.

It appeared that it’s only a matter of time before Servania was going to finish the Mexican. In the 4th round, as Servania continued to put on the pressure with the aim of knocking out Cabrera, the Mexican connected with some big counters that stopped Servania on his track and completely changed the complexion of the fight. In the 5th and succeeding rounds, Servania became hesitant as Cabrera’s confidence grew and suddenly Servania’s victory was put in peril. Cabrera probably took the 5th, 6th and 7th rounds before Servania came back strong in the 8th and 9th rounds putting back Cabrera on the defensive. Cabrera was deducted a point in the 8th round for excessive low blow before a clash of heads in the ninth round caused a cut under Cabrera’s left eye. At the end of the ninth round, Cabrera’s cornerman stopped the fight to give Servania a TKO victory in an anti-climactic ending. Servania was widely ahead on the three judges’ scorecards before the stoppage. Servania later said after the fight that he had suffered leg cramps by the 6th round. Servania has now upped his undefeated record to 25 wins with 11 knockouts. The ‘matador’ from Mexico has dropped to 24 wins, 5 losses and two draws.

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Villanueva vs. Maldonado

In the other regional title fight, Arthur Villanueva captured the IBF International Jr Bantamweight Title by defeating Henry ‘El Crespo’ Maldonado of Nicaragua via split decision with scores of 117-110, 116-113 in favor Villanueva and 114-113 for Maldonado. After a quiet first round where both fighters had a feeling out of each other, an explosion of punches came out in the second round when Villanueva connected with a left-right combination that staggered the Nicaraguan. As Villanueva pursued, Maldonado unleashed a flurry of punches of his own that caught Villanueva and sent the Filipino to the canvas in a flash knockdown. When the fight resumed, a phone-booth battle ensued that put jampacked crowd at the edge of their seats. After the smoke of the 2nd round battle subsided, Villanueva, later admiting that Maldonado had hurt him, decided to box and transformed the fight into a battle of wits and attrition until the fight ended. Maldonado was cut in his scalp from the second round fireworks and later sustained multiple cuts in his forehead, eyebrows and the back of his head as the fight progressed. Villanueva has now improved his undefeated record to 26 wins with 14 knockouts while Maldonando dropped to 19-4-0.

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Bautista vs. Martinez

The popular Boom-Boom Bautista won by majority decision against Juan Jose ‘Piquet’ Martinez of Mexico with scores of 68-65, 67-65 and 66-66 in a 10-round non-title fight. As expected, the fight developed into a slambang affair where each fighter was trying to knock each other out. Bautista however got the better of the exchanges most of the time and put Martinez to the canvas in the 5th round. Martinez also had his moments where he cut Bautista’s left eyebrow with a punch and also appeared to hurt Boom-Boom in the later rounds. In the 7th round, a clash of heads caused Bautista a deep cut in his left eyelid where blood was oozing profusely. Veteran referee Bruce McTavish summoned ring physician Rene Bonsubre to check on Bautista’s cut where Bonsube recommended to McTavish to stopped the fight. Bautista has improved his record to 36-3-0 with 26 knockouts while Martinez suffered his 2nd defeat in 21 fights. 

In the undercard, local favorite Filipino Larry Abarra of the Round 10 Boxing Club of Dubai displayed pin-point punching and ring smarts to overpower and totally outbox Chatpayak Nuengkawkawhok of Thailand in a four round superbantamweight bout. 

Two other Round 10 Boxing Club mainstays Deo Kizito of Uganda and Mohammad Akram of Syria also won their bouts. Kizito edged Anusher Abdullaev of Uzbekistan with scores of 38-36, 38-37 and 38-37 while Akram scored three knockdowns against Thailand’s Kong Windy Sports en route to 2nd round knockout victory. 

The ALA Promotions’ and ABS-CBN’s first international boxing event on the highly popular ‘Pinoy Pride’ series was hugely successful as the 2,600 tickets printed for the event were sold-out. A few hundred people who came to the venue were not able to get in there were no more tickets available.

http://philboxing.com/news/story-98628.html

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Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista lost his WBO Intercontinental featherweight title in a sometimes ugly brawl with rough and rugged Mexican challenger Jose “Negro” Ramirez before a wildly cheering crowd of fight fans at the University of Southeastern Philippines gym after which respected ALA Promotions patron Tony Aldeguer told the Manila Standard it was time for Bautista to retire.

It was a decision concurred in by his son, ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer and one that was relayed to Bautista who, despite a gallant effort, showed the wear and tear of an entertaining and exciting career that forced the Aldeguers hand.

From the time he was dropped in the opening round by a left-right combination to the chin and suffered a cut from an accidental head-butt, Bautista was unable to find his rhythm or to inflict any serious damage on the Mexican who surprisingly found himself at the end of a 111-114 scorecard by judge Edward Ligas which drew loud boos from the crowd when it was announced by Ted Lerner.

However, judges Danrex Tapdasan and Salven Lagumbay saved the day as well as the reputation and integrity of the Philippines when they correctly scored the fight for Ramirez by an identical 114-111 score which drew cheers from the fans in Davao who, like the rest of the country, abhor hometown decisions.

The action was fast and furious and spiced with quite a few ugly tactics by both fighters and in the din of the crowd international referee Bruce McTavish as well as the fighters didn’t hear the bell signaling the end of round two and continued to throw punches.

After a furious exchange in round three McTavish went to the corner of Bautista and asked him “Are you okay?” to which “Boom Boom’ replied “Yes, I’m okay.”

Ramirez was cautioned for using his head in round five and received a second warning from McTavish in the very next round, prompting Bautista to retaliate with some nasty tactics of his own prompting McTavish who did a tremendous job under trying circumstances to admonish Bautista telling him “Boom Boom keep it clean.”

Bautista hurt Ramirez with a solid right hand in round seven before dropping him with an excellent one-two combination in round eight.

Another head-butt by Ramirez in the tenth round forced the referee to penalize the Mexican a point for repeatedly charging forward with his head with an elbow on the side of Bautista’s head causing a cut which bled profusely before the ring physician took a look at it on the request of McTavish and ruled that Bautista could continue.

The tide had clearly turned in favor of Ramirez in the so-called championship rounds as he slammed Bautista with body shots and occasionally used a clubbing right hand to the side of the head.

Ramirez hurt Bautista in the penultimate round as the Filipino uncharacteristically resorted to holding, shoving and complaining about the tactics of Ramirez who kept boring in to the end to earn a well-deserved victory and continue the painful series of losses of Filipino champions.

It began with Manny Pacquiao’s crushing 6th round knockout by Juan Manuel Marquez last December 8 and the back-to-back weekend losses of WBO/WBA flyweight champion Brian Viloria to another Mexican Juan Carlos Estrada on April 6 at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Macau and WBO,Ring Magazine and WBC Diamond Belt champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire loss to WBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux in a lackluster unification title bout before a sell-out crowd at the iconic Radio City Music Hall in New York. last April 13.

The Aldeguer father and son were convinced that it was time for Bautista to hang up his gloves.

Tony Aldeguer who looks after his fighters and doesn’t take money from them said Bautista was well-set. He has two houses, four cars, a few businesses and money in the bank and it was time for him to look after his wife and newborn baby.

Aldeguer said “Boom Boom” had given fight fans lots of excitement during his career and he had nothing to be ashamed of.

http://philboxing.com/news/story-82571.html