MAASIN CITY'S SPORTS YEARENDER
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 31 Dec 2016
The year 2016 has ended and it's fitting to look back at some unforgettable moments in Maasin City's sports we had documented in PhilBoxing.com.
On February 27, Maasin City's Prince Albert Pagara, the WBO intercontinental jr. featherweight champion, defeated Yesner Talavera of Nicaragua who ran all night and came to blow-by-blow only in some few instances. Pagara floored Talavera in the 7th round enroute to a 120-107, 120-107, 119-108 unanimous decision win at the Cebu Waterfront Hotel.
The city government of Maasin again recognized his victory during the last State of the City Address of this writer on March 21. My SOCA 2016 reported my accomplishments for nine years as City Mayor, especially my 13-Point Agenda. The Agenda include Sports Excellence in which Prince Albert is a part of. Other achievements of the city in the field of sports include the hosting of the National Boxing Championships 2013, hosting of the Eastern Visayas Regional Athletic Association (EVRAA) 2012, and producing Philippine Boxing Federation champions Adones Aguelo and the late Alex Aroy.
This writer also reported during the SOCA 2016 that as City Mayor he accompanied the Maasin City athletes in the EVRAA meets, the Palarong Pambansa, the Batang Pinoy and the Philippine National Games. We were able to produce gold medalists in the national competitions.
This writer won in his election bid as City Vice Mayor in this capital city of Southern Leyte last May 9. I got 27,516 votes against my opponent who garnered 9,476 votes.
I was back to the position I served for nine years and now this writer is designated as sports czar and chairman of the Maasin City Sports Council by Mayor Nikko Mercado.
With the highest number of votes of 16,601,997 and highest winning margin of 6,623,822 in the country's presidential election history, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo "Rody" Duterte became the 16th Philippine President .
Born in Maasin City, President Rody had broached the idea of creating a Department of Sports, instead of the separate Philippine Sports Commission and Games and Amusements Board and the Bureau of Physical Education and School Sports under the Department of Education.
He loves boxing and he had a boxing patron and sportsman of a Cabinet member in former Gov. Manny Pinol. He created a Sports Development Division under the Davao City Mayor?s Office whose head William ?Butch? Ramirez, now his PSC chair. He lauded Duterte's all-out support to sports development.
Albert Pagara suffered a heartbreaking loss to the tough Mexican Cesar Juarez, and he said sorry to Filipino fans who expected victory from a previously unbeaten fighter. He was medically cleared after undergoing CT Scan and other procedures.
"Sorry to the fans, I tried my best but I was unlucky. I will recover next time," said Prince Albert when he was interviewed after he passed all medical check-ups in the hospital.
We were in distress with the loss of our hometown hero. But still we gave him a hero's welcome and recognition during the city's fiesta in August 15.
Rex Wakee Salud boxing luminary Adones Aguelo dominated Richard Betos from the first round until he stopped him with combinations to the body and head in the fourth round at the Maasin City Gym. Aguelo, who hails from Barangay Matin-aw of this city, showed amazing brawn and dexterity to the amazement of the home fans on August 16.
Some 6,000 scouts, scouters and staff gathered together to train senior scouts, the secondary level of the boy scouts, at Camp Danao, Malapoc Norte, Maasin City, Southern Leyte from September 25 - 30, 2016. They came from all over the country and assembled at the Maasin City Forest Park.
I attended the 4th ASEAN Smoke-Free Cities Leaders' Summit and Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) Regional Workshop on October 13-14 in Krabi, a bustling resort city filled with beautiful beach islands in Southern Thailand. It was attended by more than 300 anti-smoking advocates from the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore and host Thailand.
On November 18, Adones Aguelo exploded with an avalanche of hits to the body of Rodel Wenceslao causing the Kananga, Leyte native to fall on his knee never to get up and beat the referee's count. Tony Pesons declared Aguelo winner by knockout at 1:15 of the fifth round and successfully defended his Asian Boxing Federation lightweight title.
Ten amateur bouts served as preliminaries to the Aguelo-Wenceslao bout. Maasin City boxers won six of seven amateur fights they entered in a boxing encounter joined by fighters from Baybay City, Hindang and Hilongos of Leyte and Macrohon and Padre Burgos of Southern Leyte.
The Road to Redemption is not that simple. It was shown when Prince Albert Pagara clashed with Raymond Commey of Accra, Ghana in his featherweight debut on November 26 at the Pinoy Pride 39 undercard at the Cebu Coliseum.
Albert started slow in the first round as he was still learning the moves of the Ghanaian. But he had some impressive offensive actions which enabled him to control the onset of the bout. The verdict was 99-91 unanimously for all the three judges in favor of Albert Pagara.
Aguelo travelled to Ekaterinburg Expo, Ekaterinburg, Russia and fought hometown favorite Pavel Malikov who defeated Aguelo via 4th round TKO for the vacant WBC Asian Boxing Council lightweight title.
The sweetness of victory and the bitterness of defeat marked the passing year. In every fall, we are sure to rise...and face the challenges in sports.
Happy New Year from Maloney-Chona, Mallory, Marton and Marlon!
Photo shows Aguelo (left) and Pagara (right) with the writer (center).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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