Last Sept. 14, we aired on NBN 4 a boxing special which we had covered in Cagayan de Oro City. Not a few were impressed with the setting, prompting Misamis Oriental Governor Oscar S. Moreno to quip that the venue was bound to be the Mindanao version of the famous Mandalay Bay of Las Vegas.
When we first saw the Atrium of the Limketkai Mall in CDO, we were immediately impressed. It is spacious yet functional, well-designed and affords the audience a good view of the proceedings wherever one is seated.
That boxing event a couple of months ago was the first of its kind to be held in the facility. When Gov. Moreno first broached the idea to Albino Lim, the patriarch of the family that owns the CDO landmark, the latter was doubtful about the feasibility of holding a boxing event in his swank venue.
Normally, the atrium was booked for beauty pageants and conferences or at most, trade fairs. Pretty staid stuff compared to a raucous boxing event.
Gov. Moreno personally convinced Lim that the Atrium was tailor-made for a boxing event, citing other fashionably-designed venues that have hosted such activities in other countries. Lim finally relented the result was a feast for the senses.
While boxing fans are used to Spartan-like settings such as poorly-lit gyms and cockpits made for agitated roosters, the air-conditioned and well-appointed Limketkai venue with cool waterfalls and lush greenery serving as backdrop, was indeed a welcome and refreshing change for the aficionado.
And even more importantly, it projected magnificently on the television screen, so that long-time boxing patron Tony Aldeguer exclaimed “what a fantastic view!” And mind you, Aldeguer owns a boxing gym that has wowed the most discriminating boxing people from all over the world. The ALA Boxing gym in Cebu is by far acknowledged as the standard by which all other boxing gyms hope to be compared to favorably.
And so it was that inevitably, great minds that think alike would get together for a project that will not only be an exciting boxing event, but one that need not be staged in an uncomfortable and drab venue.
On Oct. 30, Gov. Moreno and Aldeguer have collaborated to put up a blockbuster card at the Atrium in Cagayan de Oro City which pits local talents who have shown that they can mix it up with the best of them.
Milan Melindo, a native of Cagayan de Oro, now holds two titles-that of WBO Asia Pacific Minimum Weight Champion and WBA Inter-Continental Light-Flyweight king- puts his WBO crown at stake against a formidable Tanzanian, Juma Fundi in the main event.
Another CDO boy, young Jason Pagara, all of 17 years old, is currently the WBO Asia-Pacific Youth titleholder in the lightweight division. He will be in the supporting main event for the vacant Philippine Lightweight title against Arnel Porras, a journeyman who has fought extensively in Australia, Thailand and Japan.
Eusebio Baluarte Jr., another WBO Asia Pacific champion (Welterweight) will also see action in another non-title bout.
While fans in the Northern Mindanao region are all agog about this triple-treat, boxing observers all over are elated over the partnership forged between two respected sportsmen, Oca Moreno of Misamis Oriental and Tony Aldeguer of Cebu and Bacolod.
The card they are putting up amidst a classy and friendly backdrop is the stuff that many can only dream of. And as one of those fortunate enough to have seen it at its inception, I can only predict many more good things to come from these two gentlemen.
I think it was Henry Ford who once said: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
I believe they?re on the “working together” stage.
