From left: Victor Hugo Reyes and Victor Uriel Lopez of Mexico, and Ghana’s George Krampah together in the press conference for the Pinoy Pride 45 at St. Mark Hotel.
/GLENDALE G. ROSAL
Veteran Mexican boxing handler Antonio Lozada has become a regular fixture in the highly popular boxing event the Pinoy Pride series.
He is known to bring in Mexican ring warriors to go up against Filipino rising prospects and champions.
But majority of them do not return to Mexico victorious.
This Saturday, Lozada brings two of his young and promising countrymen who will challenge ALA Boxing Gym stalwarts in the 45th edition of Pinoy Pride dubbed as the “Quest For Greatness” at the IEC Convention Center.
Lozada brought in Victor Hugo “Scar Face” Reyes and Victor Uriel “Yuca” Lopez to face Kevin Jake “KJ” Cataraja and Jeo “Santino” Santisima, respectively, for two World Boxing Organization (WBO) regional belts.
“I have come here many times, and I believe that my boxers here won many times but the judges and the people believed the other way. But, I still come here and on Saturday, there are two young and brave Mexican warriors who are here to win,” said Lozada in a press conference yesterday at the St. Mark Hotel to promote Pinoy Pride 45.
The Mexican boxing manager’s latest heartache was in Bogo City, north Cebu, after his boxer Hector Garcia lost in a controversial majority decision against homeboy Joe Noynay for the WBO Asia youth junior lightweight title last April 7.
Lozada believed that his ward won the fight, but they went back to Mexico empty handed.
On Saturday, Lozada crosses his fingers for judges to hand a fair verdict.
Win by knockout
Reyes (9-1-1,7KOs) and Cataraja (8-0-0,7KOs) will fight for the vacant WBO world youth super flyweight title for 10 rounds in the undercard while Lopez (13-6-1,6KOs) will try to dethrone Santisima (16-2-0,14KOs), who holds the WBO Oriental super bantamweight title in the main event for 12 rounds.
“I have the confidence, I trained very hard for this fight but if you are going to fight in your opponent’s backyard, you should win it by knockout because winning it by points is impossible because of a hometown decision. The only way to win this title and beat Santisima is to knock him out and not to win by points,” said Lopez.
Reyes has the same strategy with Lopez, saying he needs to stop Cataraja and prevent the fight to go the distance.
“I come here to the Philippines not to win by points, it’s hard to win that way, I want to win by knockout,” said Reyes.
Also present during yesterday’s presser was Ghanian George Krampah (14-3-0,12KOs), who will fight the defending WBO inter-continental super bantamweight champion “Prince” Albert Pagara (30-1-0,21KOs) in the co-main event.