By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Z “The Dream” Gorres has won the OPBF super flyweight title with a comfortable unanimous decision victory over former champion Waengpetch Chuwatana of Thailand before a jam-packed crowd at the Mandaue City Sports Complex late Saturday night.
The fights were telecast on Viva Sports top-rated weekly boxing show "Main Event" over RPN 9 yesterday, sponsored by Tanduay the No.1 Rhum. Fight fans were also thrilled by the stunningly attractive round girls Rene Summer, the 2006 Tanduay calendar girl and Julia Lopez who jazzed it up for the appreciative fans in the Sammy Gello-ani promotion.
With the win, the flashy southpaw took one crucial step forwards fulfilling his dream of becoming a world champion and following in the footsteps of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao. Although he didn’t display the awesome punching power or the aggressive style of Pacquiao, Gorres outboxed his rugged opponent whose rough-housing tactics made it difficult.
All three judges had Gorres the winner by a wide margin. International referee and judge Bruce McTavish who penalized Chuwatana one point in the eighth round for repeatedly pushing Gorres’s head down and hitting, had the mandatory challenger and WBO No.2 from the famed ALA Gym of respected Cebu boxing patron Tony Aldeguer ahead 120-106 while Filipino journalist and boxing judge Salven Lagumbay had Gorres the winner 119-107. Thai judge Pining Prayadsub also gave it to Gorres 118-109.
Gorres started cautiously but suddenly exploded with a vicious combination in the middle of the third round, dropping Chuwatana with a cracking right uppercut. The former champion took a mandatory eight count and managed to survive the round by clinching and not giving Gorres room to punch.
Gorres was clearly content to give Chuwatana a boxing lesson just like he did last February 3 in Las Vegas when he scored an impressive ten round decision over hard-hitting Mexican Jose Antonio Tirado. He repeatedly nailed the former champion with nifty combinations and often had him bewildered by his ability to deftly move out of trouble especially when Chuwatana tried to pin him against the ropes and work to the body.
With his May 20 date on the undercard of the Marco Antonio Barrera- Rocky Juarez title fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles at the back of his mind Gorres was not prepared to take any chances against Chuwatana who used his head, his elbows and resorted to every available tactic to try and upset the 23 year old Gorres.
The added pressure of having top executives of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, vice president and matchmaker Eric Gomez and international matchmaker and adviser Sampson Lewkowicz at ringside was also evident.
Beyond that was the fact that Gorres, in a touching tribute to WBC founding secretary Rudy Salud who is recovering from a serious heart ailment, dedicated the title quest to Salud. The eminent lawyer who partenered Aldeguer for some time in steering the career of Gorres was instrumental in sending him to the US early last year to train under Buddy McGirt. Two young boxers carried a placard reading “Sir Rudy, get well soon. This fight is for you.”
With the win Gorres improved to 24-1-1 with 11 knockouts while Chuwatana dropped to 23-8-2 with 17 KO’s. In a post fight interview the promising young world contender said Chuwatana was hard to handle especially because of his unorthodox style and rough tactics.
In the main supporting bout WBO Asia Pacific super featherweight champion Czar Amonsot engaged Decho Bankluaygym in a slugfest over ten rounds where both fighters showed an obvious dislike for each other in a fight accentuated by stare-downs in between rounds and other gestures that had the fans roaring.
Although Amonsot caught Decho with some solid combinations the Thai fighter with an impressive record of 14 KO’s in 20 wins with 5 losses and one draw stood his ground and never backed off.
