Banal vs Proa Lands on The Viloria-Iribe Undercard
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
AJ “Bazooka” Banal seeks to continue his road to redemption when he faces Mexican super flyweight Victor “Pitufo” Proa on the undercard of the first defense of his newly-won IBF light flyweight title by Brian Viloria who takes on Jesus Iribe at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 29.
Banal who is 20 years old and has a record of 19-1-1 with 16 knockouts is coming off impressive back-to-back wins over Indonesia’s Nouldy Manakane whom he knocked out in the 4th round on January 31 this year followed by a 2nd round knockout over “The African Golden Boy” Mbwana Matumla on May 16.
Banal was re-establishing his credentials as a world rated fighter following a stunning 10th round knockout at the hands of Panama’s Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion on July 26 last year in a fight that Banal was leading on the scorecards of all three judges at the time of the stoppage.
Proa who was regarded as a potential world champion also suffered a shocking first round knockout at the hands of Rafael “Cobra” Martinez in an IBA/NABF title fight on November 14, 2008.
Martinez who was undefeated at that time then faced IBF/IBO flyweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire and was dropped four times en route to a 4th round TKO at the famed Araneta Coliseum in the same fight card where Viloria scored a spectacular 11th round, one punch knockout of highly touted IBF champion Ulises Solis.
Prior to his loss to Martinez, the undefeated Proa who now has a record of 26-1-2 with 19 knockouts scored a 10-round decision over Arturo Estrada, of Tampico, Mexico. Proa had K0d Estrada in seven rounds seven months earlier. Before the Estrada fight Proa scored an impressive 3rd round knockout over Valentin Leon on May 24, 2008.
Proa’s manager Fernando Dominguez said prior to the Martinez fight that Proa “ comes from a poor family. He worked hard to support his family. He used to wash windows and things like that. His father passed away about a year ago. He had maybe 100 amateur fights”
He described Proa who has been signed up by Prize Fight Boxing as “real aggressive. He’s got a lot of power and he’s smart. I’ve been working with Victor for almost three years. He trains in Monterrey at the Los Panchos Gym. They got a lot of boxers in the gym, good fighters, and he gets a lot of good sparring. ”
