THERE is a fresh air of hope for Philippine boxing, thanks to the pioneering effort of the father and son team of Don Antonio L. Aldeguer, from whose initials ALA Boxing got its name, and Michael, who for years now have withstood scathing criticisms and insults on the quality of their boxers and the matches and persevered with the staging of a series of boxing events called the Pinoy Pride.
Started two years ago, the Pinoy Pride is a series of big boxing cards staged by the Cebu-based ALA Boxing. While the quality of the fights cannot yet be compared to those staged by Golden Boy, Top Rank, and Gary Shaw?s Showtime, the Pinoy Pride nevertheless has given exposure to budding and upcoming Filipino boxers and built a following needed to make them household names through Philippine television.
Indeed, some of the fights are just short of the expectations generated from the volumes of press releases and a few are just downright frustrating.
My friend, veteran sports columnist and commentator Ronnie Nathanielsz, he who does not mince words when upset or irritated, was frothing from the mouth after covering the fight between World Boxing Organization (WBO) Asia Pacific bantamweight champion AJ Banal and Canadian challenger Tyson Cave of Halifax held Saturday night at the fully airconditioned Hoops Dome in Lapulapu City.
?That was a shitty, shitty fight. It was the worst fight I have ever covered in my entire life,? Ronnie told ALA Boxing vice president Dennis Ca?ete when we met for a late dinner at the Double AA Barbeque restaurant near the Marcelo Fernan Bridge connecting the islands of Cebu and Mactan.
I agree with Ronnie. It was an irritatingly lousy fight with AJ Banal desperately pursuing the elusive Cave who chose to dance and clown rather than fight.
It was not entirely Banal?s fault, although the fight showed his limited skills and further raised questions on whether he really has what it takes to become a world champion. And definitely, it was not the Aldeguers? fault that Cave chose not to engage.
By the way, I really felt that the fight could have gone Cave?s way had it not been stopped because going to the last four rounds of the fight, he was already connecting with his long jabs and hooks to the face of the bloodied Banal who suffered a deep cut over his left eye as early as the 4th round because of an accidental headbutt.
I also had reservations on the propriety of awarding the fight to Banal based on the fact that the fight was stopped on the recommendation of the doctor to the referee that the cut suffered accidentally in the 4th was already getting to be serious.
What the officials did was total the scores and since Banal won in the scorecards at the time of the stoppage, he was declared winner by technical decision. I don?t know if this is the rule of the WBO.
It used to be that a fighter who could not continue because of an injury suffered accidentally earlier during the bout loses the fight automatically.
It would have been different had the fight been stopped right after Banal suffered the injury because of an accidental headbutt. This was the old rule.
But whatever rules were applied, there is no denying that the organizers of Pinoy Pride VII who received tremendous support from the city government of Lapulapu under lady mayor Paz Radaza succeeded in drumming up the interest of boxing fans to see the event as a huge crowd filled the new Hoops Dome, which is owned by the city government.
I don?t really know the numbers involved in the financial aspect of the Pinoy Pride Series but I would guess that at this point, the Aldeguers are still spending more than what they are able to recoup from the series of boxing events.
In fact, Pinoy Pride Series moves to Bacolod City by September to stage the world championship bout between Mexican WBO junior flyweight champion Ramon Hirales Garcia and former miniflyweight champion Donnie Nietes, a native of Negros Occidental, who gave up his title earlier this year to move up in weight.
Pinoy Pride Series, which airs on ABS CBN has made such an impact that GMA Channel 7, through the initiative of Chino Trinidad, came up with its own boxing series for television Buhay Boksingero which is also gaining considerable following.
In Mindanao, the Philippine Boxing Brotherhood, a fraternity of boxing men which I head, will also launch our Tomorrow?s Champions series which will air on PTV Channel 4 starting August with the support of Hawaiian businessman Howard Inafuku, whom I befriended through cocker Sonny Lagon.
