Yesterday’s intensity-four earthquake failed to shake Antonio “Barrio” Meza who vowed to beat Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista this coming Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
“I’m going for the knockout. And I will win,” the 25-year-old Mexican, through an interpreter, told the PSA Forum at Shakey’s UN Ave.
Meza, who flew in yesterday morning along with fellow boxer Jovanny Soto and his team, was fielding questions when an earthquake shook the room, and left the Mexican smiling.
He also expects to come out of the Big Dome smiling on Sunday.
It will be the first time that Meza, born in Mexico and now residing in California, is fighting out of Mexico, and he intends to make this one a very memorable one.
“I’ve seen videos of his fights. I’ve been watching. I know how to fight him. But Boom Boom is a great fighter,” said Meza through his manager Fernando Dominguez.
One of the videos he watched, Meza added, was Bautista’s devastating first-round knockout loss to Daniel Ponce de Leon last August in Sacramento, California.
It was Bautista’s first loss after 23 wins and 17 knockouts. But the pride of Bohol has promised to return with a bang, hopefully with a victory over Meza, who has a ring record of 23 wins and three losses.
“Yes, Sunday is going to be payback time,” said former PBA commissioner and Third Force Promotions main man Noli Eala of the 12-rounder offering the WBO Inter-Continental super-bantam title.
Soto will also have his hands full against Filipino AJ “Bazooka” Banal. They square off in the main supporting bout, and the WBC Asia Pacific Youth super-flyweight crown at stake.
Meza has been knocked out twice in his career, both of them coming in 2005 against Ricardo Castillo and Lizardo Moreno. His other loss came in April last year, a unanimous decision to Julio Zarate.
Meza said he did not travel thousands of miles just to lose to Bautista. He even said there’s no way he’s going to get knocked out –not outside of Mexico, not on foreign soil.
“No. No,” he said, again unmindful of the earthquake.