JASON Pagara just couldn’t get himself to celebrate his knockout victory over Mexican opponent Abraham Alvarez in in Carson, California, last weekend.
The older of the Pagara brothers, he easily knocked out Alvarez in the third round, but he could not savor his triumph because of the tragedy that followed in the main event of Pinoy Pride 37.
“I was almost in tears as I watched my brother get massacred against the ropes by (Cesar) Juarez. And when he sprawled on the floor and didn’t move, naiyak ako (I cried.),” said Pagara.
As described online, “Prince” Albert absorbed heavy blows from Juarez “when cornered in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds.”
“At the start of the eighth round, he reeled back to the ring post after absorbing a three-punch combination,” reports indicated.
Prince was taken to the hospital on a stretcher, his neck secured with a brace.
A colleague strongly felt that what greatly contributed to the debacle was the younger Pagara’s hairstyle which went down his face and covered his eyes.
“He couldn’t see the blows coming his way and therefore could not parry them. He also kept missing his target,” the scribe said.
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Some hours after the fight, the younger Pagara was discharged from the hospital after an extensive examination.
Although Albert declared he will continue boxing, some boxing experts say it will take sometime before he would recover psychologically.
Nonito Donaire Jr., who annotated the fight together with Dyan Castillejo, said Albert is still young at 22 and he can still pursue his dream of becoming a world champion.
Donaire, who fought Juarez in Puerto Rico last December, barely survived the aggressive style of the Mexican boxer. He managed to hack out a unanimous decision. Juarez challenged him to a rematch after decking Albert.
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HOOPVINE: Did you know that Juarez is a lawyer and why he decided to pursue boxing instead of practicing law is something to ponder on … Albert Pagara was cleared to fly back home after undergoing a battery of tests, including a CT scan, that all proved negative … He was advised by his attending physicians to completely rest for two weeks.