Tagbilaran City braces for the biggest boxing spectacle the Province of Bohol will ever host.
On Nov. 19, Bohol’s Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista of Candijay Bohol will defend his WBO Asia-Pacific (Aspac) bantamweight title against the Obote Ameme of Tanzania, East Africa.
Czar Amonsot will challenge Victor Mausal for the WBO Asia Pacific junior lightweight belt.
“This is the first time in many years as a promoter that I never worry on anything except to assure the arrival of the foreign boxers,” said promoter Sammy Gello-ani. “Everything has been taken cared of by the city officials of Tagbilaran, especially Mayor Dan Neri Lim.”
Mayor’s design
Mayor Lim personally made the design of the posters, flyers and tarpaulin streamers and his assistants at City Hall were tasked to make sure everything would be in place before fight day.
Aside from Bautista and Amonsot, other Boholano talents are seeing action in the undercard including the Tagbilaran City Amateur Boxing team, which won the 19th Visayas Inter-City Amateur Boxing Championship.
“As of the moment, we are flooded with ticket inquiries, but this fight is not for financial gain. We hold this fight because we wanted to help Boom-Boom in his training in the US next year. All the proceeds will go to the ‘I Believe In Boom-Boom’ fund-raising campaign and the tickets are not actually a payment but a donation for Bautista,” said Mark Monton, Mayor Lim’s executive assistant.
Tagbilaran City and the Province of Bohol released P500,000 each for this promotion, while the Sandugo Foundation is also helping come up with P500,000. The rest of the P2-million budget will be taken from the television rights acquired by the Viva Sports.
“This promotion is a sure hit. Everybody is ecstatic, not only the Boholanos but the entire Filipino as well. We get confirmation from Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, along with some senators who will come and watch the fight,” said Monton.
25,000
The problem of Tagbilaran City is how to accommodate those who will watch the fight at the 25,000 capacity CPG Sports Complex.
“We are planning to put up a large screen outside the CPG Sports Complex to accommodate those who cannot watch the fight inside,” said Monton.
