Latino Champs Arce and Gaspar, Good Matches for AJ Banal
By Jonny Davis
Panchito Arce, the 22 year old younger brother of Jorge "Travieso" Arce, who is challenging Australian Vic Darchinyan for the WBC and IBF Super Flyweight championship next month at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Orange County, wrested the vacant IBF Latino Junior Bantamweight Title last November 29, 2009 by knocking out in two rounds
William de Souza of Panama in Toluca, Mexico. Barely three weeks later, on December 13, 2008, in Loreto, Baja, Southern California, Mexico, youthful KO artist David Gaspar of Tijuana, Mexico, annexed the rival WBA Fedecaribe Junior Bantamweight crown by scoring a hard fought majority decision victory over local hero Francisco Reyes of Loreto. On both occasions, I had the privilege of witnessing the fights up close, as a boxing judge.
As a newcomer boxing judge in this rich US boxing landscape since transferring residence here in June 2008, I cannot help but compare these topnotch Latino boxers with our own hopefuls in the Philippines, most of whom I have seen growing up from their fledgling years to their present rankings, particularly the boys from the ALA Gym in Cebu City, where, I also started my judging career. One promising boxer I have particularly watched carefully is Alex John Banal, carrying the ring monicker of AJ "Bazooka" Banal, whom I really believed would one day give the father and son tandem of Tony and Michael Aldeguer, owners of the famed ALA Gym, a world boxing crown. Among his elite batch of carefully honed boxers, that included, among others, Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista, Milan Milendo, Donnie Nietes, and Z Gorres, he was the only boxer that I can remember who always dominated his opponents in all of his fights, including the abbreviated wins, which he had plenty in his ledger. Even in his heart breaker TKO loss to Panama's Rafael Concepcion for the interim WBA Super Flyweight Championship in June 2008, he was winning all the previous rounds going into that fateful 10th canto, when he lost wind and gave up the fight by going down on one knee, from sheer exhaustion rather than from the punches of the rallying Panamanian. This 20 year ring stylist, AJ Banal, the reigning WBO Youth Super Flyweight Champion, was mostly on my mind when I watched his two Latino counterparts in the same 115 lbs.division respectively demolish their opponents in Mexico.
How would they fare against AJ Banal? This is my assessment. Francisco "Panchito" Arce, the IBF Latino Super Flyweight Champion would be no match for AJ Banal. His all out attacking style, with little defense, which is a crude imitation of his more famous brother Jorge "Travieso" Arce's style, would have him blown away by the Bazooka in four rounds or less. AJ Banal, a power puncher and sharpshooter, would methodically chop down Arce into submission with his heavy, pinpoint hits. But, against David Gaspar, the 20 year old, counter punching KO specialist from Tijuana, Mexico, who resides in LA, California, the match-up would be interesting. He fights with the tenacity of a wounded fighting cock, wearing down his opponent in the end, as he did in his bruising battle with Francisco Reyes in Loreto, Baja, Southern California, Mexico, to win the World Boxing Association Fedecaribe Junior Bantamweight Tiara. The local hero, Francisco Reyes, a KO artist, with 15 knockouts in 25 fights going into the bout, fought with the likeness of Rafael Concepcion, the Panamanian contender who kayoed AJ Banal with consistent body shots that sucked out the wind from the Filipino in their IBF Interim World Junior Bantamweight titular contest. However, the unbeaten David Gaspar, with a fearsome record of 9-0-0, including 7 stoppages, bucked the odds and the highly partisan crowd, and came into the ring determined to register his 10th knockout win. He stood his ground, threw his own bombs and scored with crisp counter punches to the face and body of Reyes, to cause a swelling on the latter;s right eye in the middle rounds of their highly applauded bout. In an envisioned future confrontation with David Gaspar, AJ Banal has to toughen his body from the incessant heavy bombs of his Latino rival, who is just as good in piling points through effective counter punching and pinpoint sniping. Like Banal, the Latino Champ is definitely not a pushover. If this match pushes through whether in Manila or in Cebu, it will be a spectacle to behold. The spectators will not be shortchanged, and Philippine Boxing will be richer.
