VINTAGE NINJA

?Bert, I heard you?ll be fighting again.?

Bert Batawang just smiled and gave a nod as a response. I ran across the 38 year old boxer known as the Ninja three weeks ago at the IPI Gym in Mandaue City when former WBO superflyweight champ Marvin Sonsona was still training there.

Batawang just silently went about his routine. He knew people there were looking at the champ. He knew the reporters were not there for him. Batawang has been a pro for nineteen years. He knows what needs to be done.

Last March, I asked former IBF mini-flyweight champ Muhammad Rachman of Indonesia, ?What was the worst moment of your career??

I thought something got lost in translation; Rachman looked at me, clenched his fist and said, ?Bert Batawang, hard puncher.?

?Batawang, not Florante Condes?? I thought Rachman would mention the guy who dethroned him.

Batawang lost to Edren Dapudong at the Cebu Coliseum a month later. A day prior to this fight, I told him about Rachman?s remark.

?It was a very tough fight. I hurt him a few times.? Batawang told me it was difficult for him to win a decision on the road.

I kept running into Batawang after the Dapudong loss. He had taken young boxers under his wing and accompanying them during weigh-ins. He was in their corner. Boxing is his life.

Last Saturday night, Bert Batawang won the vacant WBO Asia Pacific Jr. Flyweight title at a jam packed gym at Lin Yi, Shandong Province, China against Jack Amisa of Indonesia. The time of the stoppage was 1.45 of the 5th round.

Promoter Sammy Gello-ani, who was there at ringside said Batawang dominated the first round but Amisa came back in the third. In the fifth a combination of head and body shots knocked down Amisa. Referee Sawaeng Thaneekon of Thailand stopped the fight as Amisa was not getting up when he reached eight in his count.

This was fight number 62 for Batawang; his 45th victory and 37th stoppage win. It was just another day at the office for the old pro.

The world title has eluded him in his long career; he lost to Ulises Solis for the IBF title two years ago. The years are catching up and he may not get another world title shot. Batawang fought before philboxing.com introduced Filipino boxers through the world wide web. He knows what its like to train away from the spotlight without any hype. But he still knows how to win.

That is the value of an old pro.