I was there that night, upon the invitation of Mr. Antonio Aldeguer, (and to whom therefore I must say my thanks), when Z Gorres, lost to Vic Darchinyan. Well, truly, the decision of the judges was that of a drawn match, tabla sila, but to me, who shouted hoarse for our fighter, he lost.
With due respect to the judges who individually scored differently, to me, our boxer did not win that bout because, in the words of Mr. Bunny Pages, Gorres fought “not to lose”! Mr. Pages was certain that he even dared me to quote him in this write-up. Difficult to understand? Not really.
Let me recall a past fight of Gorres in an attempt to unravel what Mr. Pages meant. More than two years ago, Z was pitted against a Thailander, whose name now escapes me, in a card that was presented in Metro Manila. The Dream, Gorres’ monicker, exhibited superior boxing skills in the first round that he punished the foreigner with the kind of precision blows I had not seen for a very long time. On top of that, while his punches were sharp, his defensive ability was spectacular. The Thai could not hit the Pinoy, at all.
With the way Gorres displayed mastery, I forecast the visitor to fall, at the earliest, in the second round. To the Thai’s credit though, he looked extremely sturdy by just absorbing the Filipino’s varied arsenal. Towards the dying seconds of the second round (or was it?), the Thai, landed a haymaker on the left side of the face of Gorres. The Dream’s attack was abruptly halted. He was not knocked out, not even downed, thank God, but just the same, he was not be same fighter after that.
Indeed, in the ensuing rounds, I witnessed a different Cebuano pugilist. The dream became a nightmare as his earlier cleverness vanished. He was no longer evading his opponent’s punches with lateral steps or slight head movements. Instead, he literally ran away or fell to useless clinches. Because it was in his mind to avoid being hit, he lost the sting of his crisp punches. Rather than plan how to land the kind of blows that would knock the Thai out (and he surely could have), he was busy preparing his escape. In the process, his punches diminished in number. Worse the decreasing quantity of blows Gorres managed to deliver lacked the power needed to end the fight quickly. Why? Because he would withdraw his fist before its impact would be fully felt. Yes, he won that fight and probably that’s what mattered to him but he displayed some psyche that would prove to be his most serious nemesis.
There is something in the mental frame of Z that prevents him from becoming a world champion. I have no generous label for it other than indescribable fear. He has the talent but he negates this with fear of being hit. This was evident in the Darchinyan fight. Of course, the visitors, I mean Vic and his handlers, waged a tremendous psychological warfare. By flaunting the record that Vic knocked out most of his opponents, they somehow succeeded to stymie the fighting will of Gorres. What was not explained was that most of the Armenian’s kayo victims were virtual unknowns. The “talawan” that our boxer is did not plan to win. He planned not to lose by knockout.
What happened that fight night? Gorres’ fear ruled. Rather than press the attack and knock the lights out of the visitor, he laid back and allowed his fear to buoy up the cockiness of Darchinyan. Afraid, Gorres ran away, instead of slipping Vic’s blows. It thus came to pass that wile backpedaling, he would lose his balance and the slight nudges which Darchinyan’s punches came to be, caused his fall a number of times.
Gorres now needs more the help of a psychologist. His trainers and coaches need to understand this inadequacy and must work to overcome it. Or he should perish his dream.