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Philippines, 17 Mar 2026 |
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KUDOS TO THE ?LABAN NA BANAL? ORGANIZERS By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Thu, 17 Jul 2008  Los Angeles. CA:- As someone looking in from the outside, I can not help but notice what the organizers of the July 26th event at New Cebu Coliseum have done to further enhance the rapidly growing allure of Philippine boxing. I am specifically referring to the AJ Banal vs Rafael Concepcion WBA super flyweight title fight. The organizers of the big blockbuster known as ?Laban na Banal?, the celebrated ALA Boxing Promotions of respected boxing impresario, Tony Aldeguer, the Golden Boy Promotions of Oscar de la Hoya, the Cebu City government and the WBA left no stones unturned to assure that the event will end up with a bang. But what really caught my eye were reports indicating that the above-mentioned group went to all out to wipe-out all possible semblance of bias and prejudice that can happen and often times happen in fights of this importance. Surely, with what they did, no one can insinuate that there was a ?hometown decision? in the event the fight ends up being so close that calling it can go either way. And, in all probability, there will not be any scores so widely different from what actually happened on the ring. First, they picked a referee who is experienced in handling fights of huge magnitudes and significance. They picked Raul Caiz, Jr of California. Caiz has figured in fights involving Oscar de la Hoya, Julio Cesar Chavez, Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins. Though not utterly infallible, Caiz has shown in the past that he is a fair and a tough arbitrator. But to make things even better, they picked judges from different countries that categorically can not be tied with either fighter involved, by country of origin, ethnicity and what have you. They picked judges from Belgium, New Zealand and Thailand and a Korean fight supervisor. Although there are no unconditional assurances that those selected to judge and score the fight will not make mistakes,(after all they are humans too) at least it can be safely assumed that in case they do, no one can insinuate that they have bias in their hearts. Now, wouldn?t that be so nice if the people that organized last Saturday?s fight at Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico have done the same? Although it is down right possible that those selected to judge the Solis-Donaire fight were totally fair, honest and have no bias in their hearts, their shut ?out scores in favor of Solis left something to be desired. And, the 100-90 score for Chavez from one of the judges was outrageous to say the least. According the more knowledgeable people in the fight business, Glenn Donaire lost fair and square. That is totally acceptable. But to score it a shut out when clearly Donaire dominated in the early goings of the fight is nothing short of bias. It can even be branded as incompetent judging. Now many will interpret the above as ?sour grapes? because Donaire did not do enough to prove that he was the better man and he lost. Nothing can be so far from what this writer intended. What this writer meant to show is had the Hermosillo event organizers did what those of the Banal-Concepcion has done then there will be no question about the scoring that happened for the Donaire-Solis and the Chavez, Jr- Vanda fights. Perhaps judges who have no connections and or interests with any of the fighters would have scored the fight correctly, a victory for Solis, but not a shut-out. The same can be said about Chavez, Jr- Vanda tiff. As it is, it diminished the victory of both Solis and Chavez. That is unfair to both fighters who fought an honest fight. The same goes for Donaire and Vanda. Sadly it seems no one from the organizing group or the judges cared about the fighters. They only cared about the final results they wanted to see. It is one thing to lose fair and square, but it?s disgusting when judges disregarded a fighter?s honest efforts and indicate that he lost by a margin that is so far from what actually happened on the ring. Is that bias on the part of the judges? May be it is, maybe it is not. But it left a whole lot to be desired! On thing for sure, that is not going to happen at the ?Laban na Banal? at Cebu City on July 26th. The organizers are too honorable to allow that to happen. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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