There was plenty of emotion and drama at the “Pinoy Power III/Latin Fury 13” fight card at the Pavilion of the Hilton Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas last Saturday and some really good fights which were telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN as well as its widely watched global network, The Filipino Channel or TFC which has become an essential element in the lives of several Filipinos we met in the United States.

To them, this is one valuable way to stay in touch with home where quite clearly, their hearts are.

And hearts were filled both among the predominantly Filipino crowd at the fights as well as the Americans and even the Latinos at the site of Z “The Dream” Gorres seated at ringside watching the fights and demonstrating the courageous fighting spirit of a true Filipino in clawing back from the brink of death to live, not to fight another day but for his charming wife Datches, his four kids and the millions who prayed for him after his tragic accident in the ring.

Gorres was visibly touched especially after Manny Pacquiao said he had donated an undisclosed sum to help Gorres and his family and appealed for public support for a fund campaign that he launched through his own Manny Pacquiao Foundation.

Despite all the comforting words and the genuine affection shown him, Gorres had to sit through the anguish of watching Ciso “Kid Terrible” Morales who took his place in the title fight against Fernando Montiel,  crumble to the canvas writhing in pain from a vicious body shot only to be counted out in the very first round.

From day one we had questioned the matchup not so much in terms of Morales’ fighting heart but more because of his being forced to come down in weight from a natural super bantamweight or even featherweight. We worried and often voiced our concern to promoter Sammy Gello-ani and trainer Nonito Donaire Sr about Morales who was 130 pounds one week before the fight and virtually starved himself to death to  make the weight last Friday.

His weeklong diet of biscuits and nothing much else, drained the kid whose sunken cheekbones reflected a terrible sacrifice that made no sense at all. That he made the weight should not be commended but his being forced to fight, condemned,  since it was another glaring mismatch between Montiel whose number of knockouts alone (29) was more than twice the number of wins by Morales (14) besides of course, the disparity in the quality of their respective opponents.   

This madness of forcing fighters to lose several pounds to fight at a lower weight than what they naturally and comfortably carry must stop or be stopped because it is a certain recipe for disaster. Even on the following morning Ciso complained to Dyan Castillejo and myself that his stomach still ached and suggested that by eating too much after dieting for a week, he had let himself become a victim of poor management. While it was for the books at least, a title fight, the eight-and-a-half to one odds on the sports book clearly showed the bookies knew their  boxing and that the fight was a certified mismatch as it proved to be in the end.  

This is why we have urged Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire not to be drawn into a super flyweight title fight against Vic Darchinyan because Nonito himself had to lose six pounds a couple of days before his fight against Manuel “Chango” Vargas who was, quite honestly, not in the same class as Donaire who may have had a much tougher time if the hard-hitting Gerson Guerrero wasn’t replaced because of a tear in the retina of his right eye.  

Donaire should not let his pride be challenged by the loud-mouthed Darchinyan and instead tell him if he wants to get his mouth shut again like he did in their first fight in July 2007 when Donaire ripped him to shreds and knocked him out silly in the fifth round, to move up and fight him at bantamweight.

Clearly the best fight for Donaire right now would be Montiel whose first round KO of Morales didn’t mean much except that it erased the negative press following his third round technical draw in his previous fight in which Montiel looked ready for the taking. Montiel himself told us he was six pounds overweight two nights before the fight which means he could be comfortable picking for Donaire at bantamweight.

In the meantime it is incumbent on managers, promoters and the world boxing organizations to protect the health of the fighters and not succumb to the temptation to earn quick and sometimes big bucks, in the process endangering the lives of the fighters because to us that is an unmitigated crime.