14.11.08 – Jaime Castro-Núñez – Yesterday in Barranquilla, Colombia, junior welterweight superpower Ricardo “Mochuelo” Torres weighed in at 154 pounds in the first pre-weight ceremony for his Saturday, December 13 WBO championship match against Kendall “Rated R” Holt in what should be the last chapter of a riveting trilogy. The protocol took place at Cuadrilátero Gym and was supervised by the commissioner René Pantoja. Torres, who stopped the scale at the maximum recommended by the World Boxing Organization, said to the press: “I needed to weight no more than 154 and I did it! I´m very motivated for this fight, willing to recapture the belt that I lost in Las Vegas due to an awful head butt on my chin that knocked me out..”
After being asked about future plans, the puncher rapidly answered that right now he is focused on Holt. However, a fight against Ricky Hatton is something he wants for this coming 2009, according to those who know him well. “He [Torres] has been calling out Hatton since last year, but apparently they consider “Mochuelo” too risky”, said his friend Jhon Romero. Sixty-four-year-old trainer Orlando Pineda, on the other hand, commented that “Ricardo is very motivated for this third chapter with Kendall Holt. The team is very satisfied with the results. We´ve been working out for two months, he started to spar last week, and the environment at the gym couldn´t be better, since world champions César Canchila and Daniel Reyes also train at Cuadrilátero and that gives him more reasons to train even harder”. The second pre-weight is scheduled for Friday, November 28 at 1:00 P.M., under Pantoja´s supervision.
On September 1, 2007, during their first encounter, Torres scored a come-from-behind TKO victory over Kendall Holt to retain the title in Barranquilla, Colombia. Holt was clearly outboxing the champion and even knocked him down with a left-right combo, but in the eleventh round Torres dropped the challenger with a huge right hand. Few seconds later, with a staggering Kendall Holt, referee Genaro Rodriguez halted the contest. Ten months later, they had in Las Vegas what has been considered one of the most dramatic opening rounds in boxing history. Just forty seconds into the fight and Kendall Holt had visited the ants twice. Towards the end of the first minute, however, Holt connected Torres with a powerful head butt directly to the chin and then finished him off with a big right hand. The referee, Jay Nady, who apparently did not see the fault, stopped the bout at 1:01. The December 13 rubber match will determine who the true champion is. ShoBox: The New Generation will telecast the bout at 11:00 P.M. ET/PT (Delayed on the west coast).