Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Quijano: A Brandy for AJ By Jingo Quijano Last Round
COLLISION at the Coliseum” proved to be a sumptuous appetizer to arouse our appetites for AJ Banal’s fight this Saturday at the same venue. The crowd turnout was sparse, but if you consider that the casual boxing fan has never even heard of Ciso Morales and Ranee Ganoy, then that was pretty decent under the circumstances.
SEESAW MORALES. Ciso “Kid Terrible” Morales had a terribly difficult time with stubborn challenger Narongnoi Or Muangklang of Thailand
He couldn’t figure out his opponent’s southpaw style, prompting one ringsider to holler that if Ciso was a Morales then his lefty foe was a Pacquiao.
In the first round, I thought Ciso’s glove touched the canvas after both of them met at the center for a furious exchange—which should have been ruled a knockdown, but the referee called it a slip.
I give the young kid credit for spunk and determination. He stayed in there until his persistence paid off and he was finally able to land big right hands and uppercuts in the middle rounds.
One judge scored it too wide for Ciso (118-110). I thought the Thai pug won at least four rounds cleanly in a seesaw battle.
SINGLE SHOT BERT. I couldn’t help but confront Bert Batawang after the fight to ask why he resorted to single snipes at Benjie Sorolla. The fight had turned competitive at the time it was stopped due to a headbutt, but blame that Bert’s inexplicable refusal to throw combinations.
After he would land a shot to the ribs (and maybe one follow-up, but that’s it), Batawang would stop to admire his work.
As the fight wore on, Sorolla became wise to Bert’s sporadic ways. He would catch Bert’s single shots on his arms and counter him. Bert won the fight on a technical decision, but really could have made things easier on himself against an opponent who only had six KOs in 22 wins with 14 losses.
KO KID. It was my first time to watch Ranee Ganoy fight live as this kid is based in Australia. He’s not the smartest fighter out there, but his power is scary.
I thought he was purposely stingy on the mustard the first two rounds to feel out his opponent and deceive him into thinking he doesn’t really whack that hard.
But suddenly in the second round, he upped the ante and unleashed a powerful combination that his hapless foe never saw coming or perhaps never suspected to be that damaging.
The ferocity of it left his opponent stunned and bloodied. Quite impressive.
CARLOS PRIMERO. After the fight, I exchanged a few last rounds with the driving voices of Cebu boxing, Rico Navarro and John M. We were joined by Carlos Costa of Panama.
When he’s not busy with international business transactions, Carlos doesn’t mind hopping across different parts of the world to watch live boxing fights. To refer to him as a boxing fan would be a terrible understatement.
Much to our surprise, he revealed that Panamanians are Pacquiao fans and that during his last fight with David Diaz, Panama’s streets were almost empty.
Wow! And I thought we could claim monopoly to such a phenomenon.
But of course, Carlos is mainly here to cheer for compatriot Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion who is here to bash Banal’s dreams. So how good is El Torito, really?
He’s exactly what his moniker suggests, according to Carlos. He bulls his way in and throws big punches. He doesn’t even mind getting knocked down. He gets right back up and fights with even more ferocity
Carlos is gallant enough to admit that Banal is still the better fighter but that Concepcion always has a puncher’s chance.
I was tempted to ask Carlos if we could have a friendly bet of one Carlos Primero brandy over it, but sadly, the guy is a teetotaler.
THE LAST ROUND. It’s on two lovely ladies celebrating their birthdays this week, my batchmate Liezel Gedorio and my cousin, Grace Ybanez. Cheers!
