BYE, RONNIE
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 12 Nov 2016
Ronnie Nathanielsz passed away just this morning and the sporting world, particularly boxing, would surely miss him. Already considered a legend in sports journalism, he died while on the call of duty as he was about to cover the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas fight in Las Vegas.
He succumbed to heart attack in California and joined our Creator at age 81. Many reporters and mediamen would have retired at this age. But not for Ronnie as he spent life full of passion for sports to the last minute.
Philboxing.com has benefited much from the works of Ronnie. He was the biggest contributor to this famous Philippine boxing website with 6,492 articles to his name.
His first article in June 20, 2006 was entitled "ROACH: PACQUIAO WILL GO AFTER LARIOS RIGHT AWAY As Team Pacquiao Arrives in Manila" and his last article "ARUM PREDICTS PACQUIAO-VARGAS WILL END IN A KNOCKOUT BUT HE DOESN?T KNOW WHO WILL FALL" was written on November 3, 2016.
He averaged more than one sports article a day in more than ten years of writing in PhilBoxing and sometimes contributing 3 to 4 stories a day. And to think that in this website writers contribute pro bono just for the love of sports especially boxing.
Pinoy Pride series always had Ronnie broadcasting and commenting at ringside sometimes with Dyan Catillejo or Atty. Ed Tolentino. He was there at Blow by Blow when Senator Manny Pacquiao was a budding pro fighter.
He also wrote sports columns at the Manila Standard and Philippine Daily Inquirer. He was also a contributor to the internationally famous website BoxingScene.com.
A Sri Lankan-born but naturalized Filipino, Ronnie became famous for his detailed coverage of The Thrilla in Manila. As he always kept rare photos and files and even films of great boxers and legendary fights from Flash Elorde to Manny Pacquiao.
He was also a familiar fixture in the coverage of the games of the Philippine Basketball Association in its early years especially the Robert Jaworski-Mon Fernandez era. Basketball was his second love to boxing.
Bye, Ronnie and rest in peace. Sportscasting and sportswriting will never be the same.
Photo shows the writer with the late Ronnie Nathanielsz in one of the Pinoy Pride series in Cebu.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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