DONAIRE vs. ARCE: WILL IT MAKE CENTS?
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 10 Jul 2012
Soon after new unified super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, Jr., (29-1-0, 18KO) easily beat the much-hyped but truly awkward former IBF champion, Jeffrey Mathebula of South Africa last Saturday at the Home Depot Center, slick boxing promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank announced that the Filipino Flash will be facing the former four-division Mexican champion, Jorge Arce.(60-6-2-46KO) for his next fight.
The huge fight is slated at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles in October.
According to reports, Arce was picked because he is a Mexican, and Los Angeles, if not Southern California is a leading bastion for Mexicans.
The opponent could have been another Mexican, Abner Mares, but that?s another story.
Arum?s apparent premise in selecting Arce to fight Donaire is based on the fact that the Mexicans always come out to support their own and those in the area will come out in droves to support Arce.
Arum is banking on the Mexicans to provide the bodies to fill out the Staples.
Well, I hope the old man is right.
Otherwise, they have to dim the lights extremely well at the Staples to hide the vacant seats from the TV audience.
I say this because as good as Donaire is, Filipinos can not be relied upon to come to the Staples in very large numbers to support Donaire.
It?s not that Donaire is not an exciting fighter. On the contrary, the opposite is true!
It?s just Filipinos generally are not yet boxing aficionados. Plus it is difficult to separate them from their mighty dollars just to see a fight.
They will stay at home to watch it on TV regardless if the fight is shown on a tape-delay basis- as long as it?s free!
That is just how it is and that is so sad!
I know this for a fact because at the Home Depot Center last Saturday, it seems that there were more Mexicans than Filipinos amongst the crowd of 3200+. To think that the City of Carson where the Home Depot Center is located has a huge Filipino population! In fact one City councilman is a Filipino.
The lack of Filipinos going to fights unless Pacquiao is involved is nothing new. Most Filipinos in the area could not tell the difference between a left jab and a ?blow job?. Many know nothing about boxing!
In contrast, if you put up a ?concert? like someone did at the Hollywood Bowl last Sunday that featured Filipino artists, they will come to see the show, no matter what.
In fact the joke last night was ?all the Filipino nurses took a day off? as there was a whole lot of them spotted at the Hollywood Bowl.
The lack of an all-out Filipino support for boxing is sad because a lot of people are missing the show that superstars like Donaire provide. But then again even back at the motherland, boxing was never a huge draw in the Philippine sports compared to basketball or even cock-fighting.
The truth is until Pacquiao came on the scene, boxing was only popular in places like Cebu and parts of Mindanao. Even at that the sports was not a big money making venture. Otherwise, one will see a lot of boxing rings under mango trees or at every town plaza just like the basketball courts that proliferate these places.
I hope Filipinos will support Donaire better this time around and drive to Staples, buy tickets and see Donaire display his wares.
Donaire is such an excellent athlete. He is an epitome of the ?sweet science? and one need to see him before he fades away into retirement in the not too distant future.
If nothing else supporting him at the Staples is one way of telling our Mexican friends that we as too as a people support our athletes as much as they do.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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