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Philippines, 26 May 2026 |
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Kulog at Kidlat: Boxing, Art, Thunder and Lightning at the 3rd Pacquiao–Elorde Awards By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT PhilBoxing.com Tue, 05 May 2026  Lightning comes first. Not because it happens earlier — but because it reaches us first. The sky cracks open with light. The air answers with sound. Light travels faster. Sound follows. Boxing has always worked that way too. Before the roar that carries across arenas and generations, there is the flash — the first sign that something extraordinary is about to happen. Long before the thunder of Manny Pacquiao made itself heard around the world, there was Gabriel “Flash” Elorde — moving with a speed and grace that felt less like force and more like light itself. Those who saw him didn’t need anyone to explain it. They just knew. The thunder would come later. Broader. Louder. Impossible to ignore. Evenings like the 3rd Pacquiao–Elorde Awards bring you back to something simpler, though. The thunder we remember so clearly — it belongs to the flash that came before it. Even before the program got going — before the applause — something had special already settled in that room.  Photo: (L-R) Jun Aquino and Manny Pacquiao (courtesy of Wendell Rupert Alinea) On polar opposites of the stage, catching the light at just the right angle, stood two immense paintings — Gabriel “Flash” Elorde and Manny Pacquiao — the work of Rudolfo “Jun” Aquino. Each canvas carried its own weather — dark skies split by streaks of light, the figures coming forward with presence rather than pose. Elorde looked measured, still — the original flash. Pacquiao, coiled, suggested everything that would follow.  Photo: (L-R) Jun Aquino and Manny Pacquiao (courtesy of Wendell Rupert Alinea)  Master painter Jun Aquino made sure for us to savor the time slowly as we honor the past through his work. You could feel the hours Mr. Aquino spent creating the masterpieces that honored two of the Greatest Fighters Made in the Philippines. The 3rd Pacquiao–Elorde Awards was more than a ceremony. Fighters from different eras filled the room — some still active, some long done, some whose stories now live mostly in memory and old photographs. Names got called. Honors given. Applause rose and fell. But underneath all of it ran something steadier, something that kept the whole night together. You felt it without looking for it. In Filipino boxing, the past doesn’t stay put. It shows up — in the way names get spoken, in how families carry themselves, in the way the sport keeps finding its way back to where it started. That presence was all over this night. And it centered, the way it usually does, on Flash Elorde. Lightning catches the eye. Thunder is what stays. It moves outward. It lingers. It points you back to where the flash came from. Elorde’s style — the footwork, the rhythm, the way he kept control without losing expression — had that lightness you clock immediately. That same energy turned up years later in a different shape, in Pacquiao, whose speed carried something behind it that went well past the ring.  Photo: Mr. and Mrs. Johnny and Liza Elorde, Okada Hotel, April 30, 2026 The night overlooking Manila Bay brought together not just people, but lineages. Johnny and Liza Elorde were there, holding the family name with reverence.  Photo: (L-R) Nico Elorde, Jun Aquino and Juan Miguel Elorde (courtesy of Wendell Rupert Alinea) Their sons Nico and Juan Miguel were with there too — Juan Miguel now helping guide the sport through his pioneering work with the Philippine Boxing Organization.  Okada Manila gave the evening its setting — polished, wide, grand. Fighters beside families. Trainers moving between conversations. People greeted each with warmth.  (L-R) An aspiring writer and his son Louis Rivera (Manila Hotel, 2008) Back in 2008, I went to an Elorde event with my son Louis. No real agenda — just wanted to be there. But boxing closes distance in ways you don’t plan for. That afternoon I shook hands with Manjy Pacquiao. With Luisito Espinosa — my father’s first champion. I’ve written about the great Flash Elorde in March 2024 — after visiting his resting place, and memories came back to me as I observed the awards through the magic of social media and the accounts of my friend Jun Aquino. The evening moved the way these nights do. Recognition. Memory. The feeling — hard to shake — that something bigger than any single moment was happening right there in that room. Elorde to Pacquiao to whoever comes next. The line holds. For those of us trying, in whatever way we can, to keep these stories from disappearing — there’s always that quiet hope. Not just to watch nights like this. To be inside them. If the stars and planets align, I hope to return to the Philippines next year…not just to watch but to stay connected to a grand tradition of boxing the Elorde Family graciously celebrate. The flash comes first. The thunder follows. And somewhere between the two everything comes full circle. Kulog. Kidlat. Flash. Boom. Acknowledgements: It has been a great honor to know the Elorde Family and our heartfelt felicitations and congratulations in their efforts in keeping the memory and spirit of Gabriel “Flash” Elorde and the Greatest Filipino Boxers alive. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Emmanuel Rivera, RRT.  |
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