by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Young Filipino super featherweight Harmonito De La Torre will open the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios fight card at the Cotai Arena in Macau on Sunday morning.
The 19 year old De La Torre is undefeated in 10 fights with 5 knockouts to his name and is coming off a ten round unanimous decision over Richard Olisa, a veteran of 46 fights last September 6,
He will face Indonesia’s Jason Butar Butar who is 25 years old and has a fight record of 15-11-1 with 11 knockouts and is regarded as a solid puncher.
Well known Australian promoter and Radio and TV boxing host Peter Maniatis who co-manages De La Torre with Jim Claude Manangquil of General Santos City told the Manila Standard that the promising Filipino fighter “is ready f or his first decent test.”
Maniatis said De La Torre has “looked good” in training and “needs to be impressive” in order to get bigger opportunities in the future.
During our visit to GenSan to watch Pacquiao train, we also saw De La Torre, a soft-spoken lanky fighter work out in the Pacman Wild Card Gym.
He is obviously thrilled at being on the same card as his idol Pacquiao and won’t want to disappoint him although he is facing a far more experienced Indonesian.
Rich Mazon of philboxing.com reported from Macau that Manangquil had watched Butar Butar’s fights on YouTube and De La Torre also watched the Indon train at the Venetian and expressed confidence he could handle him but didn’t want to be over-confident.
