Rey Bautista & AJ Banal: Are They Future Champions?

By Boxing News - 04/12/2008 - Comments

aj-banal5.jpgBy Francisco Chantango: Recently, after seeing several fights of Filipino boxing stars super flyweight AJ Banal (17-0-1, 14 KOs) and super bantamweight Rey Baustista (25-1, 18 KOs) I’ve started to wonder whether each of these two young southpaw phenoms will eventually be future title holders in their perspective divisions. Banal, only 19, looks to be slightly the better of the two prospects, although Bautista isn’t far behind him in terms of overall talent and drive. I fully realize that Baustista was blown out in one vicious round by 27 year-old WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon (34-1, 30 KOs) in August 2007, yet I don’t hardly believe that Baustista, then only 18 years-old, was ready for such an important match as this at this early stage in his career.

In spite of his immense talent that Bautista had shown previous to that bout, beating fighters such as Giovanni Andrade, Marino Montiel, Sergio Manuel Medina, Gerardo Espinoza and Roberto Bonilla, none of these fighters could prepare him properly for the kind of all out slugging that a fighter like Ponce De Leon would be bringing into a fight with Baustista. Mainly, because Ponce De Leon is so unorthodox as a fighter. He doesn’t fight in a normal manner that most fighters do, instead he goes all out throwing punches from all angles nonstop from the opening bell until the final round of the fight.

This hurt him against a skilled boxer Celestino Caballero, who beat Ponce De Leon by a 12-round unanimous decision in 2005, making him pay for his unskilled brawling technique. Cabellero, however, was a 28 year-old with seven years of professional boxing behind him, whereas Bautista was only 18, with four years of professional boxing experience going for him when he stepped it up and fought De Leon for the WBO title in August 2007. As you can see, Bautista, for whatever reason, was rushed way too fast into a bout with De Leon without having the preliminary fights one would need in order to make a jump like that without it being such a drastic change in competition.

Ideally, he should have had at least two to five bouts against top level opposition, preferably at least five, before taking on the knockout artist De Leon. What’s done is done, though, and it remains to be seen whether Bautista can rebound from that to eventually come back and challenge for a championship. At the present time, he’s ranked #3 in the WBO, just one place ahead of former champion Rafael Marquez. Now that would be an interesting fight for him to take, rather than having to challenge De Leon once again in the near future.

With his ranking, Bautista will no doubt be getting another chance at De Leon in the not too distant future, and Bautista needs to start planning for that eventuality by fighting as much as possible against top fighters. I still think it’s too soon for him to take on a fighter as tough as De Leon, but if there’s no choice in the matter, then Bautista better start fighting better fighters soon rather than later. I think he couldn’t go wrong by fighting Marquez, who is beginning to show his age somewhat. Not sure if Bautista has the mental fortitude to survive a war with Marquez, but I think it would be a match-up more suited to his style than with De Leon.

AJ Banal, 19, is ranked # 4 in the WBO super flyweight division and is seemingly on a head end course for champion Fernando Montiel. Unlike Bautista, this appears to be a match that favors Banal by a wide margin. Up to this point in his young three year professional career, Banal has looked nearly unbeatable. With incredible power in either hand, and extraordinary hand speed and ring movement, Banal looks light years ahead of his competition in the super flyweight division. Champion Montiel doesn’t look nearly half as good Banal, not in terms of power or speed.

Banal’s straight left hand is one of the most devastating punches in his vast weaponry, and one that he often uses to dispatch his foes. Few of his opponents are able to take his left hand shots for long without folding. In his last fight with Caril Herrera on April 6th, Banal hurt him early and often, staggering him multiple times in the bout en route to a 4th round TKO. Banal seemed to toy with Herrera, hurting him whenever he chose to by unloading devastating straight left hands, and then letting him off the hook after hurting him, almost like a fisherman throwing a fish back in the water after catching it, only to hook it again a short time later.

Banal has knocked out his last four opponents, and seems to get better and better with against the more skilled opposition. At this stage, he’s so far advanced then his competition that he doesn’t have anyone in which to fight competitively against anymore, and that likely includes all fou super flyweight champions.