Monday, December 04, 2006 Rey too much for Brazilian By Rommel C. Manlosa Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BOHOLANO sensation Rey “Boomboom” Bautista displayed maturity and patience to force his Brazilian opponent Giovanni Andrade to retire at the start of the fourth round in their 10-round scheduled match at the St. Peter Times Forum in Tampa, Florida in the United States.
The fight was an undercard of the Winky Wright-Ike Quartey 12-rounds duel.
The 20-year-old Bautista showed no signs of a long layoff as he dominated the fight, showing a lot of discipline when Andrade started showboating.
The only scary moment for the Filipino fighter was on the third when Andrade forced him on the ropes while dodging the wild punches thrown by the World Boxing Commission superbantamweight champion.
But the scare was momentary, as the Candijay-Bohol puncher was quick to get out of the situation, landing a solid three-punch combination to the head and body that forced Andrade to backtrack and rethink his game plan.
As Andrade paused, Bautista was all over him, connecting body shots and hooks to the head that only forced the Brazilian to showboat all the more—as if trying to show that the punches of the 20 year old didn’t hurt him a bit.
However, the more he showboated, the more body punches Bautista connected, and after three punishing rounds, Andrade decided to give up—telling the ringside doctor that he could not breathe.
Too many shots
“(Bautista) hit me with too many body shots and every time they landed I felt like I was stabbed,” Andrade admitted during the post-fight conference.
Upon the advice of Andrade’s corner, referee Jorge Alonzo officially stop the fight at one second of the fourth round.
“Andrade is wincing from the body shots and maybe his ribs are bothering him,” commented TV annotator Dave Bontempo after the fight was stopped.
Humble as he is, Bautista admitted that he was also hurt by the punches of the 36-year-old fighter from Sao Paolo.
“He was tough and he also hits hard. Luckily I just had a stronger determination and motivation to win this fight,” said Bautista, who draped himself with the Philippine flag while greeting his family in Bohol in Cebuano.
Partners
The undefeated Bautista, who improved his ring record to 21-0, peppered with 16KOs, was later joined by Oscar De La Hoya and his partners at the Golden Boy Promotions—Bernard Hopkins, Sugar Shane Mosley, Eric Gomez and Sampson Lewkowicz inside the ring.
Andrade who enjoyed height and reach advantage failed to use his earlier strategy to use the entire area of the ring, as Bautista cut him off and tagged him with vicious body and head shots.
Andrade, who once challenged Johnny Tapia for the WBO superflyweight title in February 1996, dropped to 52-10, 43KOs.
