The loss of one of the bullfighters of the moment, Samuel Navalón, shook the foundations of the Villaseca de la Sagra bullring at the end of the previous day’s bullfight. Between uncertainty and astonishment, the vomitories of the bullring were filled with groups and comments between fans in which a single phrase was unified: “Who will replace Navalón?” The surprise comes shortly after the end of the celebration. Iker Fernandez ‘El Mene’ is the chosen one. Who? More than one must have thought when reading his name. But the show in Villaseca had to go on, the commission must have thought, knowing that it was the right decision.
The next day, another great entrance into the streets of the city of Toledo was the starting point of a very well presented bullfight by Montealto that had its nuances, good and bad. You can’t blame the facade, the content of the animals, depending on how you want to see it. There was humiliation, quality, depth and transmission.. There was danger, sweetness, balance and boredom. As the definition dictates, varied and without exaggeration.
The show had to go on, but it needed a scout protagonist. And there was “El Mene”, wrapped in an aura of ignorance and expectation granted by the fans. And “El Mene”, self-confident, decided to disguise himself as the protagonist and make the show explode. The test of the third of the afternoon gave a glimpse of a very interesting bullfighter. Vertical and very soft bullfight on the right hand and a natural bullfighting that more than one character would like to be able to perform with such cleanliness. A show dedicated to pure and classic bullfighting that will renew itself with authority against the sixth of the afternoon. An excellent capotero salute to Veronica began to awaken that “run-run” among the fans of an important work. And so it was.
In the media, crutch passed back to the right hand and successive turns of great relaxation and the transmission that reached the line instantly. Naturally, it was another disappointment. A breath of fresh air in the midst of all the ugliness. Naturalness and verticality in an important concept that, logically, still has things to refine. The level of work was such that the public did not care about the slightly backward placement of the sword, which solicited with great force the two appendages. It’s good that you came Iker. “El Mene,” write his name.
Manuel Caballero, the son, we can say that he was very awake and with clear ideas at all times. Good cut, attitude and sincerity were the most outstanding qualities of the native of Albacete on an afternoon in which, in his case, what failed were the oxen. The first one practically cut him at the beginning of the task, having to go behind him to end up taking away his crutches like someone who says “at gunpoint” in the paintings. With the fourth, who fought well at the canes after a superb performance by the picador Tito Sandoval, for the second consecutive day, was also unable to fully develop, achieving the most possible in a good start. From there, the field collapsed and the transmission rate was reduced to negative numbers.
Sevillian Diego Bastos closed the shortlistwhose afternoon was a roller coaster of emotions; from the most absolute emotion during several tours of natives in front of an interesting first copy of the emblem of Madrid to the most disastrous despair in their gesture after abandoning before the mass of the fourth of the afternoon, an animal that from the first muleta blow refused to attack and that he did not want to help Bastos in any way, saving hard the right in a sea of inaction on the part of the animal. There is no reproach to the attitude of the Sevillian, simply that when you can’t, you can’t.
Bullring of Villaseca de la Sagra (Toledo). Montealto steers, very well presented and of uneven game overall, highlighting the strength of the fifth in the pectoral, the mobility of the first and the quality of the sixth in the muleta, for:
Diego Bastos (bones and gold): ovation and silence.
Manuel Caballero (peacock blue and gold): palms and flippers.
Iker Fernandez ‘The Mene’ (dry green and gold leaf with black border): ovation and two ears.
