With only one little guy, Mark Anthony Barriga, who qualified for the Olympic Games by a stroke of luck, carrying the country?s tri-colors in London this year, there is little doubt left that Philippine amateur boxing is on a steady decline and headed to the gutters.
This is in spite of the tens of millions of pesos being poured by the generous business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan who has tasked his giant Smart Communications to go all out in supporting the amateur boxing program.
Things were bad during the latter years of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) under Manny Lopez, but definitely the situation is worse now under Ricky Vargas and his people.
They are certainly not corrupt nor inefficient. They have genuinely good intentions for the sport.
Their only problem is they are basically marketing and promotions guys who are more concerned with the fancy and the flair and good media coverage and press releases.
Their knowledge of amateur boxing, however, is as basic as the jabs and the straights and nothing more.
I sensed the lack of understanding of the sport when I attended what was supposed to be an amateur boxing forum in Bacolod City a few years back which was also intended to mark the formal and official entry of Smart Communications and Pangilinan into amateur boxing.
Hoping that the forum would really look into what was needed to rehabilitate and revitalize the country?s amateur boxing program, I prepared and brought with me a composed blueprint of a national amateur boxing program which I wanted to present during the convention.
What I saw in the ballroom of the Bacolod City hotel where the event was held was not a consultative or learning forum, but a grand celebration, complete with beautiful usherettes and pop confettis, a spectacular show designed to please ?The Boss,? Manny Pangilinan.
Marketing and promotions wise it was exceptional. But boxing is not like Mang Inasal, whose franchise after outstanding packaging and marketing, was bought by another company for a cool billion pesos.
In boxing, there is the fighting and the punching part, the essence of the whole thing, which will probe and test the quality of the product being promoted and marketed.
Everybody in ABAP swooned when tiny Mark Anthony Barriga made it to the Olympics. I was told there were protocols observed as to who would make the announcement and who would be included in the glowing media releases that celebrated Barriga?s luck which came out of the efforts of the eventual qualifying tournament gold medal winner. A loss by the gold medalist, who defeated Barriga in the semifinals, would have eliminated the Filipino fighter from the Olympics.
In the thick of the celebration, nobody even dared to ask: Who and which program produced the likes of Barriga and Charly Suarez and the others in the national amateur boxing pool now? Can we replicate this program?
Aside from Barriga, Suarez, et al, are there still other boxers being molded and readied for future Olympics?
Well, the answer to the last question is a big ?No!?
Aside from the Panabo Boxing Team of former congressman Tonyboy Floreindo, which produced Suarez and the others, there is hardly any other provincial boxing team actively involved in amateur boxing.
There is no organized provincial, regional or even national boxing tournaments aimed at discovering new talents. In fact, the absence of these amateur boxing competitions have resulted in the entry of outstanding amateur boxing talents to the pro league, including a 5′ 10″ tall 17-year-old lightweight who just turned pro this year and has already scored two first round knockouts in his first two professional bouts.
Had there been provincial, regional and national competitions initiated by ABAP and staged every year, the range of boxing talents to choose from would be wide.
Add to that a national amateur boxing academy to be established in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao where these young prospective fighters could continue their studies while training and preparing for the Olympics.
This is the blueprint that I, Recah Trinidad, Quinito Henson, Hermie Rivera, Dennis Principe, Nick Giongco, Abac Cordero and the other sports journalists who love boxing, have long proposed ? a rational national amateur boxing program that not only focuses on the marketing of the finished products but also in making sure that the products being marketed are not ?ampaos.?
Our only problem is we are not really outstanding marketing and promotions men.
But with the embarrassing state Philippine amateur boxing is in right now, I am still willing to retrieve from my old computer files the ?National Amateur Boxing Development Blueprint? which I prepared and would have shared in Bacolod City many years ago.
Promise, I will not charge ABAP a franchise or talent fee.
