The right cross was, in truth, a scoop—a startling and explosive exposé.
It bared, for the whole world to see, AJ Banal’s two-penny worth as a world-title bidder.
In the journalistic world, it was damaging as an exclusive item that boldly brought into the open what a corrupt lawmaker has been keeping under his stinking table all these rotten pork-rich years.
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Our seasoned scribes at ringside were right: The illegal blow saved Banal.
Referee Silvestre Abainza could not himself be blamed for awarding victory to the fallen Banal.
The victory, if it could honestly be called such, was said to have improved Banal’s ranking among world boxing bodies; although he could also be guilty of overacting in the concluding seconds.
Anyway, Banal handlers, led by the respected sportsman Tony Aldeguer, may have to readily subject Cebu’s lead world title hopeful to an honest-to-goodness assembly engine check.
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Pardon this, please, but they could be pushing to ever-elusive championship greatness a warrior with a hidden factory defect!
It’s like this: Exactly as he did at the full-house Cebu Coliseum against Rafael Concepcion two years ago, Banal brought the overflow crowd at the Cebu Waterfront down the floor with him on Saturday.
Correction: Banal was stopped by Concepcion but he was awarded a win, no matter how dubious, against former two-time world titlist Luis Alberto Perez of Nicaragua Saturday evening.
The crazy part of it all is it has obviously become a dirty habit with Banal to fumble and fade rapidly in the concluding rounds.
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In fact, Banal would’ve won a legit world title long ago if victories are awarded to those who can dominate the first half of a bout.
To those interested, philboxing.com has posted a 7th round video of the Banal-Perez fight through YouTube.
Find for yourself what many others had suspected that, poor as he is as a fight finisher, Banal was even worse as an actor.
It was, indeed, a sordid way of scoring a victory.
The moral of the story: You could vote, and win, for a President with a factory defect, but you can’t hope to capture a world boxing crown through a warrior with an inborn lameness.