07.04.08 – By Sean Ocampo: In front of massive hometown crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, WBO Batamweight Champion, WBO Intercontinental Junior Feather titlist Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista, and rising star A.J “Bazooka” Banal destroyed their respective foreign opponents in a fight card tagged as “Invasion”. The three fighters from the Philippines scored emphatic knockouts victories over their opponents..
WBO Bantamweight Champion “Fearless” Gerry Peñalosa displayed a masterful boxing clinic over former WBO Batamweight Champion Ratanachai Sor Vorapin of Thailand. Peñalosa showed dazzling handspeed and accurate combinations that often stun the Thai fighter.. Vorapin had some moments in the fight by landing hard punches to Peñalosa’s body. However, Peñalosa was unfazed by Vorapin’s punches. The 35 year old champion blocked most of Vorapin’s punches with his arms.
During the fourth round, Peñalosa had Vorapin in serious trouble. The champion threw some killer combinations that further punished the Thai in the round. However, Vorapin proved to be strong opponent for Peñalosa; as he continued to throw punches eventhough he was visibly hurt.
In the fifth round, Vorapin was almost knocked down by Peñalosa; but he hung on by clinching Peñalosa. During the eight, Peñalosa and Vorapin had a class of heads causing a cut on Peñalosa’s forehead. The cut caused a sense of urgency for Peñalosa, as he pushed the gas pedal. Peñalosa almost knocked Vorapin down with a series of combinations. That was the beginning of the end for Vorapin, Peñalosa punished the Thai with another solid accurate series of punches that prompted referee Gino Rodriguez to step in and stop the fight at 2:31 in the eight.
After the fight, Peñalosa showed interest in fighting Daniel Ponce De Leon later this year. This fight is a rematch of their fight last March 2007, wherein Ponce De Leon scored a 12 round unanimous decision over Peñalosa.
A.J “Bazooka” Banal improved his record to 17-0-1 (14 KOs) with his impressive fourth round TKO victory over previously unbeaten Caril “El Raton” Herrera of Uruguay. The explosive Banal displayed his superior punching power to the Uruguayan fighter in an IBF Super Flyweight Eliminator bout. He rocked Herrera with solid combinations to the head and body from the first round. Banal ended the fight with a cracking straight left that seriously staggered the outclassed Herrera. Banal followed it up with a powerful one-two combination that further punished the visibly hurt Herrera. That combination prompted the referee to stop the fight at 1:18 of the fourth round. With the win, Banal earned the number one contender spot in the IBF Super Flyweight division.
Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista continues his comeback trail as he defeated tough Mexican Genaro “Duro’ Camargo in just two rounds. Bautista dropped Camargo with a solid left hook in the early minutes of the first round, but Camargo came back with his wild swinging shots from that momentarily flustered Bautista. Just before the end of the first round, Bautista floored Camargo with a short counter right hand shot. In just 57 seconds in to the second round, Bautista landed a powerful left hook shot that dropped Camargo for the third and last time in the fight.