RENOWNED EMCEE JOHN MCDONALD PREDICTS ACTION-PACKED WORLD CUP OF POOL
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 31 Aug 2012
Renowned emcee John McDonald who emcees the major pool tournaments in the world including the PartyPoker.net ?World Cup of Pool? which breaks at the Robinson?s Place Mall in Ermita, Manila on Tuesday predicts an ?action-packed tournament which it always is and with the shot clock reduced the game is going to be a lot faster.?
McDonald who is also a popular ring announcer in boxing and a friend of Fighter of the Decade Manny Pacquiao, also noted that a number of pairs from different countries failed to qualify and as a result ?its become a very tight field and nobody knows who can win.?
He said the Philippines as the host nation has two teams made up two-time winners Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Francisco ?Django? Bustamante and Dennis Orcullo and Lee Van Corteza.
McDonald said ?you can never write the Filipinos off especially since they are in home territory and there?s none better than this,? referring to Manila which he described as the hotbed and the ?Mecca? of pool.
The emcee who is also well known for his coverage of boxing and darts told the Manila Standard that ?this year will be the best year so far because if you look back at the history of Matchroom Sport (the promoters and organizers of the event) it just gets better and better.?
McDonald said ?we have great TV partners here (Solar Sports) and major press relationships and everything seems to work here. Everybody seems to want to make it happen and that in itself is very, very important to us.?
Defending champions and top seeds are last year?s champions Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann of Germany who aim to become the first team to ever retain the title.
Reyes and Bustamante won the inaugural ?World Cup of Pool? in Cardiff whipping Earl ?The Pearl? Strickland and Rodney ?The Rocket? Morris Morris of the United States in 2006.
They duplicated that feat in 2009 with a gripping come-from-behind 11-9 triumph over Souquet and Thorsten.
The 32 teams from 31 countries are vying for the top prize of $60,000 with total prize money of $250,000.
Huge crowds are once again expected at the event which McDonald said is a reflection of the passion of the Filipinos for pool.
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