There will most likely never be another Manny Pacquiao. He is at once considered the Filipino version of Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth and the Beatles. Guys like him, as Larry Merchant might say, don’t just grow out of the rice patties. They come along every other generation- if you’re lucky. But it’s not as if the now-legendary ‘Pac Man’ is the first noted boxer from this region, men like Flash Elorde and Pancho Villa were standouts long ago and in more recent times men like Luisito Espinosa and Gerry Penalosa had accomplished careers.
But Pacquiao has more than just starred in the ring, he has spawned a marketplace for boxing in a country that has a population of over 90 million. The likes of Pacquiao may never be seen again, but rest assured that from this point on that there will be a steady stream of world-class fighters that will come from their islands for years to come.
Which is why Top Rank created ‘Pinoy Power’, which has it’s second edition this Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas starring Nonito Donaire, who faces Rafael Concepcion for the Interim WBA super flyweight title.
“It’s all been created, the whole Philippines phenomenon by Manny Pacquiao,” said Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank, which promotes Pacquiao and a sizable stable of other Filipino boxers.” Over the years as he’s been emerging as a superstar of the sport, not only in the Philippines, but also in the world, there has been a huge wave that everybody in that culture has been able to ride. As a result of that, we believe guys like Nonito Donaire and Brian Viloria are just special people, that are special products with a good fan-base and the fan-base loves the product. Solar, the television partner came to us to do a fight this past year with Nonito and Brian in the Philippines and the rating was a 70-plus share on a Sunday.
“That’s a fight without Pacquiao, a 70-share. So there’s a real voracious appetite for boxing in their culture.”
On April 19th, in front of a crowd estimated at over 15,000 at the Araneta Coliseum in Manila, Donaire would take care of Raul Martinez in four rounds to defend his IBF flyweight title and Viloria would stop Ulisis Solis in the 11Th frame to capture the IBF jr. flyweight belt. This show was front page news throughout the week in the Philippines and the victors were thrown parades in their honor. Yeah, boxing back there, is kinda of a big deal.
Donaire, himself, was stunned by the large gathering for his fight.
“I was very surprised,” he admitted, to Maxboxing,” when I was out there training hard there were a lot of news crews that followed me and stuff like that. But I did not expect all those people to show up and support the fight. It was really packed. So I was really surprised, I’m just thankful for that.”
The talented young Donaire, who has been dubbed ‘the Filipino Flash’ has no problems admitting that it was Pacquiao who has laid the groundwork for his own success and popularity.
“He definitely led us to the promised land, in that sense, and he opened the door for everyone. I was saying to a lot of people back then, when I started professionally, nobody really cared about Filipino fighters. They always made fun of us. Telling us we can’t crack an egg, we can’t break a tomato or something like that. So there was always that stereotype of Filipino fighters as the lowest part of the food chain. Pacquiao, definitely opened that for all the Filipino fighters and the young Filipino fighters to come.”
But it’s Donaire’s own talent that made him the centerpiece of Top Rank’s newest ethnically influenced series.
” I was shocked and maybe it’s because I never give myself that much credit because I go into that ring and I have to prove to myself and to everyone that I belong here and every time I go in that ring, I feel like I’m the challenger and I gotta make things happen,” he says.” So with what’s happened now, it gives me great honor to be the headliner of this card and I’m definitely going to do my best and just let everyone know to support this and maybe one day the Filipino community as fighters can be the equal of what ‘Latin Fury’ has done.”
It’s funny he should say that because duBoef said of ‘Pinoy Power’:” In large part, it’s ‘Latin Fury’ but for the Filipino community, that’s really what we’re appealing to. We’re trying to create a brand for a niche and a culture which has an appetite for the product. That’s basically what we’re doing. There’s no bells and whistles, I’ve always believed that that the best way for a talent to show, is to let the talent be main events and let these guys not just be shown on undercards of guys fights- that’s part of the good thing- but the other good thing is to let them stand alone.”
Top Rank is expecting just a modest number of buys in the United States and ticket sales at the Hard Rock are said to be slow. But back in the Philippines, where this card- that also features Bernabe Concepcion and Mark Melligan- will be televised over-the-air for free, is expected to do strong ratings, once again.
“We’re going to have a huge amount of volume in terms of viewership,” said duBoef, “and the television partners have come together really well to promote it well, both here and there. So there’s a lot going on.”
Donaire has strong roots to both the Philippines and the United States.
“I was born in Bohol, then a month or two after I was able to travel, we went back to General Santos, where my family really lived. All my siblings were born in General Santos City,” said Donaire, who’s brother Glenn, also boxes professionally. He came to America at the age of ten.” It was definitely tough for me,” he admitted, of the transition.” The only thing that was tough in the Philippines was we lacked food, we lacked supplies and poverty was a way of living in the Philippines for my family. And being so tiny at my age then, I was made fun of back in the Philippines and especially when I came to the United States, everybody was bigger. Everybody was taller, everybody spoke English and I didn’t understand English, well.
“So it was really tough for me but one thing I vividly remember was getting off the plane from San Francisco and just the lights at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was something that I remember, it was at night and it was just unbelievable.”
He eventually acclimated to his new surroundings and before long was an amateur standout fighting out of San Leandro, which is located in Northern California. After the disappointment of not making the 2000 Olympics for the United States, he turned professional. And in July of 2007, he captured his first world title by shocking the world in halting the previously unbeaten and unstoppable Vic Darchinyan. But since that point, his career was bogged down by litigation against his former promoter, Gary Shaw, and he’s fought just sporadically since, with just three performances since his knockout of ‘the Raging Bull’.
The key for Donaire will be getting out there consistently and building his own legacy. His manager, Cameron Dunkin says,” That’s what we want to do, we’re already talking about December for him, again. This is great because Top Rank’s putting him in a position where he’s back on a pay-per-view, he gets to headline, which I think is huge. Once people really see this guy, how good he is- they haven’t seen a lot of him, yet, but he is terrific and he’s going to grow in size.”
Much has been made of Pacquiao’s ascension in weight. Dunkin believes his own charge will have quite the belt collection in due time.
” He’s going to grow into a featherweight, maybe even a jr. lightweight. I just think he’s going to be a superstar, he is so terrific. I honestly don’t think that there’s five or six better pure fighters than Nonito Donaire- right now. And he’s just coming into his own. He’s going to be dangerous.”
One of the keys to building a star, is to face other notable names. According to the respected manager, there is no shortage of them between 115-122 pounds.
“Jorge Arce is a big fight for him, Darchinyan rematch is still being talked about, which I love for Nonito and so does Nonito. We’ve got Cristian Mijares out there, we’ve got Fernando Montiel, which is going to be a big, big fight, I think down the road. He’s going to move up to ’15, win a title, then he’ll be moving up after he fights Arce and some of those guys. Then he’ll be going to ’18 and then he’ll deal with the Montiel’s of the world. It’s just going to get better from there and he’ll just be a ’22-pounder. That’s really going to open doors for him,” said Dunkin, who’s managed a cadre of world champions in the past.” His goal is to win titles all the way up to ’30. He’s very capable of doing that, he’s 5’7 and he walks around at 135, 140, so he’s going to be able to carry the weight. He’s going to be terrific.”
Soon Pacquiao will be walking off into the sunset with his considerable legacy. And while Donaire and Viloria, may never break out his immense shadow, they can certainly carry the torch for their countrymen. And unlike their Mexican counterparts, it doesn’t matter if they now reside in America or grew up there. That whole dynamic of a being a ‘real’ Mexican’ doesn’t really exist with the Filipino’s. Right now, it’s one for all.
“Maybe in the future,” said Donaire, who now lives in San Mateo, California, but spends a considerable amount of his free time in the Philippines with his wife, Rachel.” But now, everyone is just embracing the fact that there’s a Filipino fighter who is fighting and that the world is watching. And they embrace that when I fight out there. Everybody knows that I’m really proud of who I am and I bring it out there, I show class, I show my talent, I represent my country. And no matter if I was born here or if I grew up here, it didn’t matter, because for me, like when Pacquiao fights, everyone gets together and we celebrate.
“We just have fun because of who we are and we represent that.”
BEWARE OF PERRO
It was good to see Alfredo Angulo get back on the winning side of things, as he halted Gabriel Rosado in two frames on Friday night. Many believed that this bout would go quality rounds but instead, Angulo was able to land his heavy power shots on Rosado early on and get rid of him.
The bottom line is this, movement will always give Angulo fits, but if he can square up on you and lets his punches fly, he’ll be trouble for anyone that steps in with him.
But it was refreshing to see that this time around, Angulo, instead of letting himself get tied up on the inside, he let his hands go and it caused the first knockdown of Rosado, who complained as if the referee should have helped him out somehow. It’s this simple, fighters allow themselves to get clinched way too often, instead of working free, they make what Teddy Atlas has famously dubbed ‘the silent agreement’- I don’t hit you, you don’t him me, until the referee separates us. And Rosado, seemed to be looking for such an pact. Only Angulo was complying.
Good for him.
2 PPV’s
‘Pinoy Power’ isn’t the only pay-per-view on the night of August 15th, as ‘Hook City’ takes place in Bilox, MS between the faded Roy Jones and Jeff Lacy. It’ll be interesting to see which show performs better. One, is at least filled with young, bright, fresh talent( that would be ‘Pinoy Power’) and the other is basically a gathering of has-beens and never-were’s.
Give me ‘Pinoy Power’ and NFL exhibition football on that night and I’m good.
FINAL FLURRIES
The best bout of either pay-per-view show is the one between WBO featherweight titlist, Steven Luevano and Bernabe Concepcion on ‘Pinoy Power’…Does Kurt Rambis know what he’s getting into? I’d rather be an assistant on the Lakers than the head coach of the T-Wolves…..So far the new season of ‘the Real Houswives of Atlanta’ has been outstanding. I felt sorry for Sheree for about five minutes, but she quickly showed why I felt the way I did about her in the first place….Welterweight prospect Mike Jones remained undefeated as he beat Lenin Arroyo over ten rounds….. Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
