Quijano: Was Romero motivated by revenge?
Jingo Quijano
Last Round
LAST Sunday, two of our warriors were laid out on the canvas, but luckily one of them kept his world crown due to a no-contest verdict. However after I saw the video, I am convinced that the correct call should have been a disqualification.
Rodel Mayol was surreptitiously bludgeoned by a left hook from Omar Niño Romero following a low blow landed by the latter in the third round of their WBC light flyweight battle.
Referee Vic Drakulich was a few feet away and was not able to position himself between the fighters to immediately call a halt to the action.
There was a report that Drakulich actually yelled “stop” and if this was the case, then Romero should have been disqualified.
After the erring blow to the family jewels, Mayol instinctively lowered his guard and started to walk away. Romero however, kept his foot on the attack pedal and teed off with a left hook from hell.
Should Mayol have protected himself at all times as fighters are routinely cautioned to do?
Of course. But that doesn’t mitigate what Romero did. Again, it’s hard to determine based on the video only as everything happened so fast, but my opinion is premised on the fact that Romero ought to have heard Drakulich’s admonition to stop the hostilities.
WBC. It seems like controversy will always hound my distant relative from my mother’s side. A few days prior to the fight the WBC was miffed by comments reportedly coming from the Mayol camp about unfair treatment and came out with a statement which warned that the matter would be referred to the WBC disciplinary committee for evaluation.
A day prior to the fight, the Mayol camp timely came out with its rejoinder which partly stated: “I categorically deny certain statements that was alleged on that article and we wished someone checked on us before they were published. They would have gotten the correct story! I would like to apologize to the WBC for statements unfairly blamed on our team.”
REVENGE? What befell Rodel is somewhat similar to what happened to Edgar Sosa, his previous opponent. To recall, an inadvertent butt from Mayol fractured the cheekbone of Sosa in the second round.
The Sosa camp claims that he was so badly hurt by that headbutt that he was unable to fend off the follow-up assault coming from Mayol which dropped him and netted the Batang Mandaue a TKO victory.
The difference,however, lies in the fact that an appreciable time interval existed between the head butt and the follow up flurry, while in the Romero fight, only a split second intervened between the low blow and the left hook unleashed by Romero.
Obviously, Mayol was caught off guard and never expected Romero to keep punching. In Sosa’s case, he was standing and defending himself when Mayol pounced.
But it really just makes me wonder if Romero’s actuations were premeditated.
MARVIN SONSONA. Sigh, I feel bad for the kid. What can I say, really?
He was matched up with one of the best young fighters in that division with a sterling championship pedigree.
But Marvin was also a young undefeated prospect and who’s to say that he was way in over his head in accepting that fight?
I certainly didn’t feel that way in the first round when he landed some stinging left straights to the face of Vasquez which had the latter hesitating.
Unfortunately, Vasquez proved to be faster and more accurate with his combinations.
IMPROVE. When Sonsona won the WBO super flyweight belt two fights ago, I marveled at how his youth provided him the audacity to challenge for a world crown armed
with only a limited arsenal.
But he trusted in what he had and gave it his all and was successful.
In this case, up against a more polished fighter, Sonsona’s abilities proved to be woefully inadequate.
Per se, that should not deter a young fighter from moving on with his career. On the contrary that should motivate him to improve and come back better and stronger.
LAST ROUND. It’s on my compañero Atty. Jeffrey O. Amante who celebrates his birthday this week. Cheers!
(jingo_quijano@yahoo.com)