Career-changing wins

REY “Boom-Boom” Bautista and Rocky Fuentes are facing one of the most important fights of their careers as a win may earn both of them a shot at a coveted world title.

Bautista is defending his World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight crown against Mexican Jose “Negro” Ramirez, while Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) title-holder Fuentes trades leathers with current World Boxing Council (WBC) Youth super flyweight titleholder Juan Kantun in a 10-round non-title fight in the co-headliner of Pinoy Pride XIX – Mexican Invasion on April 20 at the University of Southern Philippines in Davao City.

“We would like to see ‘Boom-Boom’ show us that he is ready for a title shot or higher caliber opponents. His last fight against Daniel Ruiz in Manila last October was a close fight, which his training team has learned from. All would depend on how he performs on April 20. Everyone was shocked with how powerful Boom Boom's left jab and left hook is, which is his trademark, but the public is not aware that it was his left wrist that had a major surgery and it was only the second half of last year that it was fully healed with no pain. His performance on April 20 should answer questions,” ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.

Bautista, rated fourth in both the WBO and International Boxing Federation (IBF), is off a split decision win over Daniel Ruiz in an exhilarating brawl at the SM Mall of Asia Arena last October.

Bautista, 34-2 with 25 knockouts, will have his hands full against 27-year-old Ramirez, who has a respectable 24-3 record with 15 knockouts.

“Yes it’s a WBO International title fight. What I heard about Ramirez is that he has more skills than Daniel Ruiz, the opponent that ‘Boom-Boom’ fought in MOA Arena in Manila last October, which turned out to be a classic fight. Team Bautista is still waiting for the video,” said Aldeguer.

Fuentes, 34-6-2 with 20 knockouts, will put on the line his world rankings with a difficult fight against Kantun, 20-3-3 with 15 knockouts.

“Yes it could be the toughest fight of Rocky depending on what level he’s in right now. This fight should tell all of us if Rocky is ready for a title shot because Kantun has fought some respected named fighters,” said Aldeguer.

Fuentes is rated No. 2 in the World Boxing Association (WBA), No. 3 in the WBC, No. 5 in the WBO and No. 7 in the IBF flyweight division.

In the undercard, OPBF super flyweight titleholder Arthur Villanueva (20-0, 11 KOs) defends his title against fellow unbeaten prospect Marco Demecillo “Singwangcha” (18-0-1, 14 KOs).

Knockout artist Lorenzo Villanueva (23-1, 21 KOs) faces of with former Indonesian champion Arief Blader (17-9-1, 6 KOs).