Philippines, 12 Aug 2025
  Home >> News

 


BOXERS

CURRENT CHAMPIONS 

FORMER CHAMPIONS   

RATINGS                       

NEWS           

FORUM        

FIGHT GALLERIES        

RING CARD GIRLS        


 
 
News  


Find Your Center


PhilBoxing.com




A friend of mine told me about something he'd read, that to find peace and be settled in life one has to figure out what it is one is running from. Not being much of a runner myself I rather look at the same view from the stance of a fighter. Always find your center. Just as a boxer moves with perfectly equated weight distribution on both sides of his body find out what it is that drives you and hold on to it, and then start moving on from there. Accepting the weight of whatever your center may be gives you stability and automatically gives you an approximation of things around you 'cause each and everyone of us are innately born with logic.

It is an irony, though, with life itself being the biggest among ironies, that I speak of logic when love, being the strongest driving force in the world, is beyond explanation. That part, I don't have the capacity to clarify at the moment. But know your center still and I believe everything becomes clearer for you moving forward or back (in retrospect). For sure, it simplifies matters just as you look across the window and you automatically have a quick estimation of how long it'd take you to walk leisurely down a corner. And you won't keep on waking up in your bed, if you're lucky enough to have a home, wondering what it is you live for and what the main purpose is of your being. Knowing your center, your driving force, you are able to tell if you are going the wrong direction, going past, or not doing good enough to catch up with it. One more thing is that you are able to focus your energy and maximize it with what matters and whenever it's called for. That is how the best boxers don't overdo things. They know when to come in or step back, their punches are committed yet don't get thrown off balance by their momentum, their estimations are lethal with proper training, and discharge with great timing from a relatively safe and balanced ground- thus, the definition of the sport, "to hit and not get hit." And that is why no sport mirrors life like Boxing.

Down at the gym the boxing scholars of The Villanueva Boxing Academy ranging from eleven to fifteen years of age are nearing the middle of their training in preparation for the elimination round of The Batang Pinoy Boxing Competition in Roxas City this coming September. It's a tournament we have previously won Gold and Bronze medals. Their eyes are fixed at the prize, and for a change the prize is not money, at least not directly. It is not how they are trained in this old school type of Boxing gym for the underprivileged youth. The very fact that they are off the streets make them champions. Downstairs, one Harry Camacho works the heavy bag alone in a corner and as he kept ramming his fists the sound of its integrity resounds against the washed up walls that reveal signed photos of boxing legend Wayne McCullough and actor Neil Jackson with adamant expressions of encouragement. On the second floor a ten year old kid with sorry eyes is too young to box and can't wait for the next year to come, and watches the rest practice with coach Estrella dictating the routines. Christian Dave Jumento, 15 years old, a natural counter-puncher shadowboxes. Brothers Jules and Justin Victoriano works a drill with John Paul Alapar.

In a sport stricken with corruption, these kids are armed with character and traditional values, but they don't know it yet. It is a place a once poor Manny Pacquiao might have hoped existed in a time when nobody else was there for him. And now each time he wins Billions of Pesos from a single prizefight the government ushers him a redundant million.

Outside the gym one could hear the sound of simultaneous punches, skipping sound of the rope, rattling of the speed ball and the heaving of the upper floor. The Villanueva Boxing Academy beats life.


Mark F. Villanueva
BoxingInsight.Blogspot.com

Mark owns the Villanueva Boxing Academy for underprivileged kids in Iloilo City. Follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/markfvillanueva

Like the Villanueva Boxing Academy Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mark-Villanueva-Boxing-Academy/525918080779632?ref=hl


Click here to view a list of other articles written by Mark F. Villanueva.


Recent PhilBoxing.com In-House articles:

  • THE PAST WEEK IN ACTION 10 AUGUST 2025
    By Eric Armit, , Mon, 11 Aug 2025
  • Abelgas finishes second in Asian Amateur Chess Championships
    By Marlon Bernardino, , Mon, 11 Aug 2025
  • Llover Has to Win Big to Boost Ranking
    By Teodoro Medina Reynoso, , Mon, 11 Aug 2025
  • ALOYSIUS YAPP MAKES HISTORY WITH FLORIDA OPEN TRIUMPH
    , Mon, 11 Aug 2025
  • Don King Issues Cease and Desist Order to SELA and TKO Over Michael Hunter Fight
    , Mon, 11 Aug 2025
  • Finally, Manny Pacquiao Rated WBC #1 Contender, Reenters Ring Welterweight Ranking at #9
    By Teodoro Medina Reynoso, , Mon, 11 Aug 2025
  • NP Bansalan rules Buhangin slugfest
    By Lito delos Reyes, , Mon, 11 Aug 2025
  • Battle Ready: Midgley and Apisit Clash for WBF Australasian Heavyweight Strap
    By Carlos Costa, , Sun, 10 Aug 2025
  • Filipino Jan Clifford Labog wins big in Hongkong chess tourney; earns Candidate Master title
    By Marlon Bernardino, , Sun, 10 Aug 2025
  • Featherweight Crusher Mirco Cuello Destroys Sergio Rios to Win WBA Interim Championship in Benghazi
    , Sat, 09 Aug 2025
  • TONIGHT! Maricela "La Diva" Cornejo to Battle Natasha "The Nightmare" Spence for WBA International Title
    , Sat, 09 Aug 2025
  • INKSIDE Track: A Quarantine Story Tattooed in Mactan
    By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT, , Sat, 09 Aug 2025
  • A Night of Boxing in Sta Ynez, California: Cain Sandoval Versus Jino Rodrigo
    By Teodoro Medina Reynoso, , Fri, 08 Aug 2025
  • USA Boxing Announces 2025 World Boxing Championships Roster
    , Fri, 08 Aug 2025
  • Adrien Broner Hints at Comeback, Pledges 3-5 More Years to Boxing
    By Gabriel F. Cordero, , Fri, 08 Aug 2025
  • Heavyweight Jamar Talley falls short in opening bout of 2023 Santiago Pan American Games
    , Fri, 08 Aug 2025
  • Milo Marathon in Tagum on September 7
    By Lito delos Reyes, , Fri, 08 Aug 2025
  • Former Undisputed Heavyweight World Champion, Riddick Bowe Confirmed for Eighth Annual Box Fan Expo, During Mexican Independence Day Weekend, Saturday September 13, in Las Vegas
    , Fri, 08 Aug 2025
  • Gaballo and Laurente to Co-Headline Sanman Boxing Event in Gensan
    , Thu, 07 Aug 2025
  • Paulo Salud and His POWer Punches
    By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT, , Thu, 07 Aug 2025
  • Jamaine Ortiz Eager to Face Steve Claggett in Co-Main Event of MVP Fight Night on DAZN
    , Thu, 07 Aug 2025
  • Happy 53rd Birthday to the One and Only Gerry Peñalosa!!!
    By Carlos Costa, , Thu, 07 Aug 2025
  • FLORIDA POOL OPEN DAY TWO: GORST FALLS TO ATENCIO AS CHUA, YAPP, AND DUONG CRUISE INTO LAST 64
    , Thu, 07 Aug 2025
  • 128 chess players officially registered for Touchmove
    By Marlon Bernardino, , Thu, 07 Aug 2025
  • Japanese Rule of the Lower Weights Under Challenge by Pinoy, Latino Boxers
    By Teodoro Medina Reynoso, , Thu, 07 Aug 2025




  •  



     
    PhilBoxing.com has been created to support every aspiring
    Filipino boxer and the Philippine boxing scene in general.
    Please send comments to feedback@philboxing.com


    PRIVATE POLICY | LEGAL DISCLAIMER
    developed and maintained by dong secuya
    © 2025 philboxing.com.