TEAM Concepcion is confident that their pugilist, Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion would walk out the ring with the World Boxing Association interim super flyweight belt around his waist when he defeats young boxing sensation AJ “Bazooka” Banal on July 26 at the Cebu Coliseum.
“I have gone a long way. I came here to win by either a decision or a knockout,” said Concepcion in the final press conference, yesterday, at the Caspian room of the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Cebu.
Concepcion’s manager Damon de Berry believes that Concepcion has trained long and hard in Panama and at the Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn under the wing of the famed trainer Hector Roca.
Roca has been a trainer for 49 years and has handled some of the best boxers.
“He is 100 percent ready. We didn’t come here to lose,” said de Berry.
Concepcion finished an impressive 300 sparring sessions for the biggest fight of his career and believes that he can knockout Banal.
“The knockout will come by itself. If I could knock him out then I would knock him out,” Panamanian brawler said.
But the 19-year-old ALA boy isn’t eager for an exchange of words and wants to settle everything in the ring and not in a press conference.
“Let’s wait and see in the ring,” said Banal looking at Concepcion who was at the opposite side of the table.
The World Boxing Organization Asia Pacific Youth super flyweight champion feels that he would be ready when he walks up the ring on fight night and has planned to disrupt the tactic of his opponent.
“I won’t be pressured by this match. I have a plan for his style and I’ll try my best to destroy his strategy,” Banal said in Bisaya.
Eric Gomez, the vice president of Golden Boy Promotions, feels that this will be Banal’s night and not Concepcion’s.
“This kid, he’s going to be a world champion. AJ is something special I’m sure he’s going to prove it on Saturday night,” Gomez said.
Others who will be in the fight card are the swift Milan “Milenyo” Melindo who will trade leathers with Panamanian Carlos Melo and Michael Domingo who will be facing Rivo Ringkung.
The weigh-in for the fighters will be today at the Atrium in SM City Cebu at 11 p.m. (EKA)
