07.06.07 – By Jaime Castro-Núñez: WBO Light Welterweight champion Ricardo “Mochuelo” Torres of Magangué, Colombia, is lost and has not started to work out for his second boxing title defense against No.1-ranked and mandatory challenger Kendall “Rated R” Holt. The Torres-Holt bout is scheduled for Saturday, August 4 at All State Arena in Chicago, IL.
Ricardo Torres (31-1-0, 27 KOs), who captured the belt last November when he defeated “Mighty” Mike Arnaoutis of Greece, successfully defended his crown last April 28 at Coliseo Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia, against brave Arturo “El Silencioso” Morúa. After the fight, his trainer Orlando Pineda ordered one week for medical examinations and gave his pupil another one for absolute rest, so the WBO boxing champion took the opportunity to visit family and friends in his hometown, but the week-vacation was over and he never returned to Barranquilla for training and sparring.
According to his promoter, Billy Chams, nobody knows where the champion is. “He turned off his cell phone a couple of weeks ago,” said Chams to Bogotá-based newspaper El Tiempo. In his native Magangué, neither relatives, nor friends, can help to resolve the mystery. But we all know that procrastination and irresponsibility are the classic signs of indiscipline. Apparently, hard-hitting Torres has not realized that there are, literally, thousands of boxers who want the belt that he captured in his second attempt.
Most probably, he is busy spending his money somewhere in Colombia and forgot that skilled Kendall Holt (22-1-0, 12 KOs) has been working out for several weeks already. Contrary to Torres, the challenger well understands the words of former Featherweight boxing champion Jorge “El Maromero” Páez: “You win the fights in the gym.” It seems like Torres does not want –or deserve- to be the champion. On August 4th, we will see if this sprout of indiscipline costs him what any, any boxer works for: a belt!