Banal over-trained, lost steam

There was a pall of gloom in AJ Banal’s dressing room Saturday evening, almost an hour after the previously undefeated boxer took a stunning loss to Panama’s Rafael Concepcion.

For so long, the boxer who was designed to win the fight sat motionless on a plastic chair, shell-shocked, hardly saying a word even as the people closest to him tried to comfort him.

His mother, Marlina, massaged his back and fanned him with a towel, while his trainer, Edmond Villamor, sat closely, whispering words that didn’t even seem to register on the boxer.

Banal’s siblings, for they looked so much like him, were inside the room, too, just as stunned and heart-broken that the fight that was supposed to be won handily had slipped away.

Michael Aldeguer of the ALA, who calls the shots for Banal camp, moved in and out of the dressing room, and as he sat beside his boxer tried to share the terrible pain of losing.

How it would affect Banal’s future with Golden Boy Promotions remains a question.

Eric Gomez, vice president of GBP, was on hand to witness the match, staged before some 8,000 fans that packed the Cebu Coliseum, and pointed to a few reasons for the defeat.

“It could have been something about the training,” said Gomez a few feet away from Banal who started well until Concepcion took over starting in the third round.

Concepcion, 26, worked the body of the 19-year-old Cebuano, and was highly successful. He also caught Banal with solid shots on the head and got away with a lot of clinching.

Banal was clearly out of steam when he was knocked out in the 2:35 mark of the 10th round.

Banal said he trained almost three months for the fight that put the Interim WBA super-flyweight crown, and a shot at the world title by the end of the year, at stake.– Abac Cordero