DAVAO City’s John Vincent “Mulawin” Moralde was shot down before he could even fly as he absorbed a technical knockout loss to Mexican Jose Enrique Durantes Vivas in their superfeatherweight encounter at The Bubble, MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on October 18 (Philippine time).
I think he apologized to his fans on his Facebook following the defeat yet when I checked again yesterday, I could no longer find it on his timeline.
As I could remember, he claimed that his opponent got to him first. He termed it “naunahan.” The 26-year-old Dabawenyo boxer was caught off guard that he did not know what was coming.
His record, thus, dropped to 23 wins (including 13 knockouts), zero draw and four losses, (including three knockouts) and zero draw, while Vivas improved to 19-0-1 card.
Moralde had such a challenge in Las Vegas. It can be recalled that he was supposed to fight Alexis Del Bosque of Mexico on July 17 also at MGM Grand, but their collision had to be cancelled after Moralde tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Their ring battle was held off on the eve of their actual rumble.
It turned out to be a big blow for Moralde and his camp who prepared long and hard in their Miami, Florida training camp for his date with Del Bosque, which could have been his MGM debut.
On his October 12 post, he showed his Covid-negative test result and captioned it: “Win or lose, daug nako daan (Whether I win or lose in the fight, I am already a winner).”
He had a good point there. The biggest victory is regaining his health, surviving the dreaded disease.
Whether the loss was due to the quickness of Vivas, any Covid-19 survivor could not easily recover to a 100 percent good health condition. This might have also affected Moralde’s performance.
According to The Japan Times report dated May 13, “beating the initial sickness may be just the first of many battles for those who have survived” as most of those who recovered reported breathlessness, fatigue and body pain months after being infected. Covid-19, according to research, also attacks other organs.
Just hoping Moralde takes more time to rest and focus more on recovering to his optimum health. He is still young, there are still few more playing years ahead of him. He needs to take things slow for now.