REMEMBERING GUADALAJARA
By Manny Piñol
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 11 Oct 2005
It was a long journey that I and my bosom buddy, Recah Trinidad, took from Manila to the City of Guadalajara, Mexico, famous for its beautiful women where even the sidewalk vendor selling peanuts looked like the tantalizing Thalia of the Mexican telenovelas.
The year was 1996 and Luisito Espinosa, then the World Boxing Council Featherweight champion, was defending his title in a foreign land against Guadalajran native Alejandro "Cobrita" Gonzales.
I was on my second year as mayor of M’lang, North Cotabato, my hometown and in spite of my tight schedule the itch and the excitement of seeing that fight and covering it for Philippine television was just too much to resist.
Former sportswriter Clarito Samson, who at that time was involved in bigtime boxing promotions, acquired the television rights of the fight and it was to be beamed live from Guadalajara to Manila via satellite. Recah and I would do the fight commentary.
It was a fight which many considered was a suicide for Espinosa because three years earlier, Aug. 13, 1993, Gonzales knocked out Espinosa in the second round of a WBC International Featherweight title bout also in the same venue – Arena Coliseo in Guadalajara.
Mexican fight officials all thought that the fight inside the ring was just a mere formality of what everybody in Guadalajara was prepared to celebrate that night – the ascension of Gonzales to the WBC featherweight throne.
In fact, before the fight, Mexican boxing officials had already arranged a victory banquet for Gonzales in the very hotel where Luisito and our group stayed. The band was ready as early as 7 p.m. long before the bell to start the championship fight could ring.
There were only seven of us Filipinos, including Luisito, and two Japanese – Espinosa’s manager, Joe Koizumi, and former world bantamweight champion Jiro Watanabe – inside the Arena Coliseo which was filled with Mexican fight fans many of whom were already in a celebratory mood drinking the popular Corona beer.
But there was to be no celebration for the Mexicans that night. The banquet was cancelled and the band did not play any song.
Luisito Espinosa, who was booed when he entered the ring, made the whole country proud, especially us six Filipinos who were at ringside, knocked out Gonzales in the 4th of what I consider until today as Espinosa’s best fight ever.
I previewed a tape of that fight last week as part of the preparations for the Oct. 29 benefit boxing card for Luisito and I had goose pimples.
That night of March 1, 1996 with the scent of spring in the air in that distant city of Guadalajara, Luisito made every Filipino proud.
Today, hardly anyone remembers him.
But not everyone has forgotten.
Me? Recah’s unintelligible shrilling commentary as Gonzales fell on his back in the 4th round still rings in the my ear. The sweet taste of Corona Doble XX lingers in my tongue
And the great feeling of being a Filipino inside an arena full of Mexicans still make me proud.
I still remember that great night in Guadalajara.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Manny Piñol.
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