PASIG CITY – On the 22nd floor of the Discovery Suites, the view is fantastic: High-rise buildings tower tall above Ortigas, the Manila Bay glistens from a distance, and, down below, SM Megamall sits slumped like a giant Match Box. But nobody?s watching.
At the lounge, the room is abuzz: Flat screen TV sets crowd the room showing ?Germany versus Argentina? while six men are wearing green-and-white World Cup jackets with the print ?MEXICO.?
But nobody?s watching.
Not the Manila skyline. Not the World Cup. Not in this room.
Not when Manny Pacquiao and Oscar Larios are about to do the outrageous: strip to reveal their underwear.
Yesterday morning was the first time I?ve attended a boxing weigh-in.
How did it look like? A stage loomed at the center with a solitary weighing scale.
A dozen boxers stepped up, one by one. And all around, a thousand media men crammed the room! (OK, maybe less than a hundred.) I?ve never seen so many photographers, video men, and newspaper writers in my life.
Michael Buffer spoke. You know him. ?Let?s get ready to rumble…!? Remember that voice on world title fights? That?s Buffer?s. He?s about 6?feet?tall, has a suntanned face and gray hair, and he donned a yellow polo shirt, beige coat and, as perfect match, a pair of white Converse sneakers.
?Thrilla… in… Manila… Two!? he announced.
Oscar Larios wore all black. He stepped on the stage, took his clothes off to reveal black underwear. ?129 pounds!? Buffer screamed.
Minutes later, Pacman arrived. He slipped on a pair of red sunglasses, and undressed to reveal a pair of black boxer shorts.
While all eyes were on the weighing scale, someone shouted, ?131!? Oh no, we thought. He?s overweight! Seconds later, Buffer announced, ?Pacquiao weighs… 129 and one-half pounds!?
We smiled.
Pacquiao did not. He entered and left the stage in less than five minutes-flexing his upper-body but not his facial muscles. He looked serious and ready to transact business at 11 this morning.
Antonio ?Bidoy? Aldeguer was nowhere in sight. Same with Rey Bautista, who?s recovering from a flu.
In Aldeguer?s absence, there stood his son Michael, who was with their ALA Gym fighters Czar Amonsot and Michael Domingo.
Michael Aldeguer and I spoke at length about today?s problem: Poor attendance. If media reports are correct, more than half of the tickets remain unsold. ?Eric Gomez, the trusted aide of Oscar de la Hoya,? said Michael, ?approached me to ask why the very low turn-out of ticket sales. He asked, ?Isn?t Manny the biggest star in your country???
Manny Pacquiao. World fight. RP soil. Aren?t those perfect ingredients to salivate thousands?
?Ticket prices are too expensive,? answered Michael.
Ringside tickets are sold for P50,000, patron seats for P30,000, lower box seats for P20,000, upper box seats for P7,900, the bleacher seats for P500. And these prices don?t even include the E-VAT!
?Wakee (Salud),? said Salven Labumbay of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, ?told me even he won?t pay P30,000 for a seat. And that?s coming from a multi-millionaire!?
Here?s the danger: TV footage showing thousands of empty chairs. ?That would be embarrassing,? said Michael.
Wakee Salud wore a gold Rolex that glistened on his wrist, and the same metal as his necklace. If his boxer Jimrex Jaca wins, he?ll shine even brighter…
ABS-CBN host Dyan Castillejo was a former junior tennis champion, back during the days when I competed. Looking at her today, I couldn?t help but say that she?s become too thin….
Among those at the weigh-in was Dong Secuya, creator of philboxing.com, one of the country?s top websites. On the eve of the fight, he expects as much as 20,000 unique visitors…
The media men were unhappy.
First, early this week the news that we were to be given Upper Box seats. Complaints rained upon ABS-CBN that Pacquiao himself came to the rescue.
The good news: we?re given Patron seats….
Another complaint was the more than two hours it took to hand out the press passes. In my case, I was asked to go to the ABS-CBN headquarters to pick up the ticket because ?we haven?t finished processing the IDs,? they said.
Worse, instead of Sun.Star, they placed ?Daily Cebu? as my media outfit. Ha-ha, I joked to my fellow companions that included Sun.Star?s Jun Migallen, Rommel Manlosa and Arni Aclao, I?ll open a new paper under that name…. Still, with a free ticket on-hand worth P30,000, who am I to complain?
