Katangkatang: ALA Boys, Condes Victorious in Cebu

REY "Boom-boom" Bautista scored a 4th round technical decision win over Mexican rival Alejandro Barrera. The fight was stopped in the middle of the fourth round as the Mexican fighter suffered a deep cut on his right eyelid prompting the ringside physician to halt the fight. The fight was action packed and appeared close before it was stopped. With the win, Bautista's record improves to 29W-2L, 22 KOs.

Undefeated Minifly Milan Melindo showed much improvement in terms of power as he ravished his Korean foe and ended the night early by knocking out Jin Man Jeon in the second round via a vicious left uppercut to the Korean's eye. Melindo's brings up his record to 22W-0L, 7 KOs. Milan also won by KO in his last fight in Dubai.

Southpaw Jimrex Jaca did an easy job on overrated Mexican opponent Pipino Cuevas Jr. as a left straight to the jaw sent the legend's son crashing to the canvas in the very first round. Cuevas is the son of legendary Mexican and former welterweight Champion Pipino Cuevas. Jaca upgrades his record to 31W-6L-3D, 16 KOs and will start preparing to fight bigger names in the lightweight division.

Former IBF Minimumweight Champion Florante "Little Pacquiao" Condes (24W - 5L-1D, 20 KOs) showed that he still has what it takes to get another world title as he dominated every round of his fight versus Indonesian Sofyan Effendi. Condes scored a knock down in the 7th round but failed to finish his job on Effendi. Condes has just came out after a 14-month lay off since his loss to Nkosinathi Joyi of South Africa but didn't appear to have suffered from the usual ring rust.

It was great to see our Filipino boxers dominate their foreign opponents. But observations and comments are always inevitable. I can see the vast improvement in the performance of Milan Melindo and Jimrex Jaca. Milan has been often regarded as just another pure boxer in the like of Ivan Calderon who can only win in points and does not have any killer punch to knock out his opponents. But what we saw was another Milan Melindo. There was fury in his eyes and there was extra crisp in his punches. Now I can see a much better future for the pug from Cagayan de Oro.

Jimrex Jaca of Sibulan, Negros Oriental also made his own statement that he is another name to be reckoned with in the lightweight division. His knock out win over a named Mexican will add shine to his already good resume.

As for Boom-boom Bautista, one thing I saw in his fight was his usual lack of lateral movement thereby making him an easy target for power punches. Barrera was able to rock Bautista several times with some hooks and straights. I saw Bautista winning the first and the third round with Barrera taking away the second round. Bautista has been a contender for quite a long time but his career went downside after his first round KO loss to Daniel Ponce de Leon and his decision loss to Heriberto Ruiz. If we have a Mexicutioner in Donnie Nietes, Bautista has been Mexicuted twice in his career by losing to both Mexican foes.

It was not much improvement as to his fighting style. The featherweight division is one of the most exciting divisions in Boxing today with the presence of boxing stars like Yuriorkis Gamboa, JuanMa Lopez and Rafael Marquez. With Bautista's recent showing, I am not convinced that is ready to face any of those names mentioned. He has a lot of homework to do before he regains his status as a legitimate world title contender. But Boom-boom is young. He has a few more years to improve his style and try grabbing out another legit belt for ALA Stable.

Kudos to ALA Promotions and ABS CBN Sports for another great boxing event. I'm sure boxing fans would die to see Milan Melindo, Jason Pagara or Michael Domingo fight in a world title bout. I can sense that these can happen anytime soon. Again congratulations Sir Bidoy and Sir Mike for another great treat for us boxing fans.

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