Just a Few of Philippine Boxing?s Neglected Areas
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Manny Pacquiao?s victories never fail to generate a national hysteria that makes us forget about the realities of Philippine boxing.
Most Filipino boxers are struggling financially. They cannot afford to have a routine CT scan of the brain. Most wind up in the cheaper government hospitals if they suffer cuts that require stitches. Only a few are lucky enough to have rich and generous managers who will spend on private orthopedic surgeons for hand fractures, ophthalmologists for detached retinas or pay for an MRI of the brain.
Filipino boxers need to from a group similar to the players union of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). They can use this association to have their own trust fund so they can use the money for their medical bills. Most boxers who get disabled also have to fend for themselves. Pacquiao, if he wants, can be a unifying voice on this issue. He is one of the most influential people in our country and the world. He can use his influence to initiate positive change.
Lest we forget, if there are no trialhorses and journeymen, there would be no superstars like Pacquiao.
Another example is the Fighter?s Initiative for Support and Training (F.I.S.T.) founded by former heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney. It is a charitable organization that assists retired boxers with the support and training needed to carry on their lives after they retire.
Boxers need to unite to protect themselves. If they band together, they will not be mere pawns in the shadowy game played behind the scenes. A classic example is the tragic fate of Luisito Espinosa. He still has to collect his purse for his successful world-title defense against Carlos Rios in December 1997 in Koronadal, South Cotabato.
Boxing through the decades has more than it?s share of debatable decisions. But Philippine boxing also doesn?t need a repeat of the ?Osamiz scandal? involving featherweight Lorenzo Villanueva. The youtube video of the fifth round of his fight against Eric Macas ranks second in popularity to the home videos of Hayden Kho.
Kidding aside, the Braveheart Boxing Club?s website, www.thepinoyboxers.com, has an article stating that No.Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Pinol will file charges against the officials involved in that fight.
Once the smoke clears, we can make this an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive. Officials involved in boxing ? referees, judges, physicians, etc. ? would greatly benefit from training and retraining. We need to upgrade the quality of personnel that we have. This will involve a big budget of course but this country does have a history of mindless spending on non-sustainable endeavors. I?m sure we can allocate something for a sport than has continued to bring honor to our country on a shoestring budget. To err is human but bad decisions turn off fans; no fans, no promotions. It?s as simple as that.
We may have the best pound per pound boxer on the planet but if you examine closely the top contenders in the various sanctioning bodies, you don?t get to see a lot of Filipinos. Most are ranked in the weight divisions below 126 pounds. We may have beaten Mexico once in a head to head World Cup boxing match-up but we still have a long way to go if we really aim to be at par with the likes of Puerto Rico and Mexico.
If you look at our present crop of champions, Nonito Donaire and Brian Viloria polished their skills in the U.S. Pacquiao, Gerry Penalosa and Donnie Nietes are home grown talents. Penalosa?s career is winding down. Nietes? talent and potential has been ignored by corporate sponsors.
On the amateur side we still don?t have an Olympic gold medal. Yet year after year we hear the same old litany about having a grassroots sports program. Can the new and improved ABAP deliver in 2012?
We have always excelled in individual sports like professional boxing but we have never been world champions in team sports. Our individualistic mindset, crab mentality and ethnic prejudice hinder us from working as a team not just in the sporting world but in Philippine society as a whole.
We should continue to work in improving the sport not just in training our boxers but also the way fight cards are supervised and promotions are being run. I?m sure other boxing afficionados will have their own suggestions. If there is one valuable lesson Pacquiao has taught us, it is that Filipinos can be world class. We can rise above our negative culture of underachievement. A couple of years from now, we need to brace ourselves for a reality check in the post-Pacquiao era.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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