Lovin’ Luis

When Panamanian Luis Concepcion set foot in Manila a full week before his scheduled slugfest with hot prospect Kenneth Llover, nobody gave him a chance of going the distance.

Concepcion was inactive for two years and his two previous bouts before accepting the offer to travel to the Philippines were back-to-back defeats.

So who in his right mind would put a bet on somebody like him?

Besides, he was up against a young gunner in Llover, who is coming off two first-round knockout wins in Japan.

“He’d be lucky to be standing by the fifth round,” said a ringsider who has seen it all.

Personally, I kind of agreed with this longtime observer of the fight game.

Concepcion, while a two-division champion, looked way past his prime.

In fact, this October, he will be 40.

So how can a 40-year-old withstand the damaging blows of a 22-year-old like Llover?

Get my drift?

During the press conference hyping the fight, Concepcion boldly declared that he didn’t make the trip from Central America to Manila just to lie down and die.

“Vine aqui para ganar. No vine aqui para perder (I came here to win. I didn’t come here to lose).”

At first, it looked as though Concepcion was pulling our legs.

He was down in the second round and once again in third canto.

And instead of just opting to stay down or acting as though he was in deep trouble, Concepcion got up each time and did his best to land a meaningful punch.

He actually managed to land his haymakers but it lacked the snap needed to stop Llover dead in his tracks.

Eventually, Llover would wear him down and in the eighth stanza, a couple of hard shots landed squarely and Concepcion’s legs almost betrayed him.

A badly shaken and wobbly Concepcion was rescued from extinction when referee Carlo Baluyut stepped in and put a halt to the scheduled 10-rounder.

I then went near his corner to check on him because he was the recipient of some pretty damaging blows mostly to the head.

He was immediately attended to by his trainer and he had that look of a loser. His face was starting to puff up and his overall appearance was that of a fallen fighter, someone who has had enough.

I am going to be surprised if he ends up fighting once more considering the battering that he took from Llover.

The beating that he took was big time, the type that often left other boxers comatose.

It’s over Luis.

Hope you get to stay out of boxing so you can enjoy what’s down the road.

Hats off to you for living up to your promise.