Bautista gets 3-year pact despite setback

Despite his failed title bid against WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon, Ray “Boom Boom” Bautista clinched a three-year pact with Golden Boy Promotions, ensuring a bright future for one of the Philippines’ most promising fighters.

Bautista, who arrived yesterday from the US with three of the five winners – Z Gorres, AJ Banal, and Michael Domingo  —  in the recent World Cup of Boxing, said he would take a rest for the next six months before plunging into training again for his next fight.

The 21-year-old Bautista, earlier touted to be the next Manny Pacquiao, was the lone Filipino loser in the six-fight card that featured the top boxers from Mexico and the Philippines.

Two other Filipino fighters in the World Cup, newly crowned WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Peñalosa  and  Diosdado Gabi are to arrive today with American trainer Freddie Roach.

Opting to fight De Leon toe-to-toe at the onset, Bautista took severe head shots from the hard-hitting Mexican champion, who dropped the Filipino bet with a left to the face right in the first round.

Bautista got up but ran into a flurry of blows and fell once more, prompting the referee to step in and stop the fight in 2:30 of the fateful round.

Earlier, Peñalosa did the unthinkable when he scored a seventh round knockout of Mexican  champ Jhonny Gonzalez to cap the RP bets’ domination of the duel. – With reports from Rudy Santos and Michael Punongbayan