December 10 and 11, 2011 will go down as one of the best weekends for Philippine boxing in the history of the sport. It was an action packed ?Sat-Sun? featuring a world championship in Manila last Sunday and a regional title fight here in Cebu Saturday night. We all know how Brian Viloria scored a big TKO win over Giovanni Segura to retain his WBO world flyweight championship, and how Boom Boom Bautista took Miguel Angel Mendoza out in six rounds to defend his IBF International featherweight title. The weekend proved that boxing has now reached a level wherein the country can afford to stage two big events in one weekend. But what else can we learn from all this?
For starters, while Philippine boxing is qualified to stage big time boxing events at any given time, Cebu pulled off the better show when it should?ve been the other way around. This makes us proud as Cebuanos. Cebu proved that one doesn?t need to go to Manila to put up a good show. The Hoops Dome drew a full-house crowd of rabid fans, and the usual smooth flow of the whole production made the event world-class. As expected, ALA Promotions and ABS-CBN connived for the successful staging as they?ve done in all of the past Pinoy Pride events and those that came pre-PP 1-10. The irony of it all is that Pinoy Pride X did not feature a world title fight with world-famous boxers. Boom Boom is certainly still many fights away from a world title fight, while his opponent was an unknown boxer even if he was undefeated. In Manila, they had two world champions fighting on top of the ring in Viloria and Segura. Both were former world light flyweight champions with Viloria getting a head start in winning a second belt in a heavier division. Moreover, Segura was listed as #9 on Ring Magazine?s Pound-for-Pound list before the fight. This by itself should?ve been enough to fill up any venue. The sad part is that while the Hoops Dome was packed, the Ynares Gym in Pasig, which is smaller than the Hoops Dome, wasn?t. It?s hard to imagine how a world championship fight with two excellent boxers couldn?t draw a big crowd. On the other hand, a fight featuring two boxers who may never even win a world championship looked like it was a world championship event.
As a follower of the sport, I?ve always been puzzled at the boxing fans of Manila. It?s such a discriminating lot that the only fight that could draw a full-house crowd is one that has a certain Manny Pacquiao in the main event. What is it about the Manila boxing fan? Does he prefer watching the fight on TV? But boxing fans know that there?s nothing like the real thing. Is it the competition in the field of sports, leisure and entertainment? Manila fans probably prefer going to the malls, go shopping or simply stay at home. Or would they rather watch the PBA games?
