Bautista, Fuentes vow to turn back Mexican invasion today

DAVAO CITY – It’s all systems go for tonight’s first Pinoy Pride boxing event in Mindanao as the card’s headliners, Rey ‘Boom Boom’ Bautista and Mexico’s Jose ‘Negro’ Ramirez both made the division limit of 126 lbs during yesterday’s official weigh-in held at SM City Davao.

Bautista (34W(25 KOs)- 2L), will be defending his WBO International featherweight title for the first time while Ramirez (24W (15 KOs)- 3L), who got tips from Bautista’s nemesis Daniel Ponce de Leon, said during last Thursday’s presscon that he will target Bautista’s jaw.

The weigh-in was supervised by WBO VP for Asia-Pacific Leon Panoncillo and officials of the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) for Region XI. A capacity crowd of 8,000 is expected to witness the fight at the University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) gymnasium.

For the co-main event, Rocky Fuentes (34W(20 KOs)– 6L-2D) weighed in at 113 lbs while Mexico’s Juan Kantun (20W (15 KOs)-3L-3D) tipped the scales at 112 lbs for their ten round non-title contest.

POTENTIAL SHOW STOPPER

‘King’ Arthur Villanueva (20W(11KOs)-0L) made the superflyweight limit of 115 lbs while his rival Marco Demecillo Singwangcha (18W(14 KOs)-0L-1D) weighed 113 lbs. The two undefeated boxers will engage in a highly anticipated OPBF title fight. Villanueva is the defending champion and will be risking his title for the first time in a 12-round dogfight.

Demecillo’s promoter, Rex ‘Wakee’ Salud has tapped the services of Manny Pacquiao’s assistant trainer Nonoy Neri to be in Demecillo’s corner. Neri is also one of the trainers of Rodel Mayol. In Villanueva’s corner will be the trainers of the ALA Gym – former world ranked contender Michael Domingo and Edmund Villamor, who was the recipient of the ‘best trainer’ award during the 13th Flash Elorde Memorial Awards last March.

Rev. Henry Guanzon, who manages Villanueva, told CDN before the weigh-in that he told his boxer not be lured into a brawl and just fight smart from a distance.

Mark Vincent Bernaldez (124.5 lbs) will face his foreign opponent, Indonesian Arief Balder (122.5 lbs), in an eight-round non-title match. Balder (17W-9L-1, 6 KOs) was supposed to fight Lorenzo Villanueva of the Braveheart Boxing Stable but the latter suffered an injury during training. The 21 year-old Bernaldez (9W-0L, 5 KOs) fought at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel last month and stopped Rolando Omela in two rounds.

There will be four more bouts on the undercards of Pinoy Pride 19: Mexican Invasion which will be telecast Sunday morning over ABS-CBN.