By Rey Danseco
REXON Flores felt he won the fight, but it was World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight champion Omar Narvaez who was declared the winner in the clash that took place on Saturday night in Cordoba, Argentina.
Narvaez earned a lopsided unanimous decision win over 12-rounds against his first Asian challenger. Flores, retained the title before the jubilating 9,000 fans at Super Domo Orfeo.
The three judges scored the fight, 120-108, 119-109, 119-109 all in favor of the 31-year old champion.
“We lost by hometown decision, the referee gave Rexon two deductions on low blows and headbutting. Everytime Narvaez gets hurt in the body, the referee breaks,”said Gabriel “Bebot” Elorde Jr. after the fight, referring to American referee Samuel Viruet.
“Rexon is not known in using his head. Rexon initiated a great fight, I thought he won,” Elorde added.
Flores (110 lbs) had fought according to their plan of coming forward and never backing off. He blusted Narvaez’s nose with hard punch in round 6, forcing the southpaw Narvaez (111.3 lbs) to use the ring to escape the furies of his challenger.
Flores, ranked No. 1 by the WBO, dropped his win-loss-draw record to 16-3-4 with 8 knockouts in his five-year career. Narvaez improved to 22-0-2, 15 KOs.
At least two Filipinos were identified that supported Flores from the stand of the 12,000-seat arena. They were Catholic priests Ruper Solis and Dexter Carr.
The two Argentina-based Pinoy clergies led a prayer along with the Team Flores after the weigh-in Friday and conducted a mass around 10:30 a.m Saturday both at Flores’ room at the 8th floor of Sheraton Cordoba Hotel.
Team Flores, includes trainers Erbito Salavarria and Ruel Morata, is scheduled to come home 7:30 pm on Thursday.
Despite being in Cordoba since Sunday, Flores almost refused to fight Narvaez when promoter Osvaldo Rivera failed to pay him the purse after the weigh in.
Elorde told Rivero and WBO representative Jorge Molina from Buenos Aires that he would not let Flores fight unless he got paid.
However, Elorde agreed to the suggestion that Flores got his full payment on the night of the bout in a "no purse, no fight" agreement.
Flores skipped a roadwork in a chilly Thursday (Friday in Manila) morning and ate soft-boiled eggs with coffee for breakfast. After the weigh in around 6 pm, Flores had his wish granted of having his favorite Filipino dish “tinola” for dinner Elorde Jr. cooked in his newly bought rice cooker at his room.
Local station TyC Sports will televise the fight in Argentina and beamed in many parts of South America and United States via satellite.
The last time a Filipino and Argentinean matched up in Argentina, happened 50 years ago when then Oriental bantamweight champ Leo Espinosa suffered a controversial unanimous decision loss over 15 rounds against then undefeated world flyweight champion Pascual Perez – considered one of the greatest Argentinean fighters of all time -- in Buenos Aires in 1956.
Argentina’s most veteran sportswriter and radio announcer named Ruben, now 76 years old, confirmed to Elorde that Espinosa lost on a controversial decision. It was Espinosa’s second loss in world title bout, next to his split decision setback to world flyweight boss Yoshio Shirai of Japan in May 1954.
The Philippines produced 11 world flyweight champions since Francisco “Pancho Villa” Guilledo took the throne in 112-pound class on May 18, 1923 until Malcolm Tunacao wore the World Boxing Council belt from May 19, 2000 until March 2, 2001.
