Rey Bautista Training Hard For Heriberto Ruiz Bout

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

WBO No. 1 ranked super bantamweight Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista knows he has a fight on his hands when he battles tough Heriberto Ruiz on the undercard of the Paul Malignaggi – Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton IBO junior welterweight title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 23 (Manila Time.)

The fight card will be telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN on its pre-eminent Channel 2.

A report from Las Vegas to the ALA Gym of respected boxing patron Tony Aldeguer said that it has been “work, work and more work” for Bautista and WBO Oriental bantamweight champion Michael Domingo since they arrived in Las Vegas last October 28.

The day after their arrival Bautista and Domingo hit the road for an early morning jog and reported at the gym of Roger Mayweather in the afternoon where they “went through the usual routine of hitting the bag and doing some conditioning drills after working out with Mayweather on the punch-mitts.”

Both Tony Aldeguer and his son Michael who is slowly but surely assuming the mantle of leadership at the famed boxing gym realize that “it will be a big comeback fight” for the 22 year old Bautista, regarded as one of the most promising young fighters in the Philippines whose only setback was against a menacing Daniel Ponce De Leon in Bautista’s first crack at the world title onAugust 11, 2007.

Both fighter and mentor have learned their lessons well from that fight and have quietly worked on restoring Bautista’s confidence and tempering his mindset of all-out aggression without biding his time and sizing up his opponent.

Since then Bautista scored a unanimous twelve round decision over Antonio Meza to win the WBO Intercontinental crownon December 2, 2007, scored a smashing 2nd round knockout over an outclassed Genaro Camargo on April 6 this year in a title defense and followed it up with a 2nd round TKO over Eden Marquez on August 30.

The 30 year old Ruiz is coming off a twelve round loss to former world flyweight champion Eric Morel in a battle for the vacant WBO Intercontinental bantamweight title in which Ruiz was dropped in the third round. However, prior to that Ruiz scored a 3rd round TKO over Ernesto Rivera on April 18 after winning the FECOMBOX bantamweight crown with a twelve round unanimous decision over Francisco Garcia last February 22.