CASIMERO-RIOS PURSE BID? PANAMA HERE I COME.
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 24 Dec 2012
With the report coming from my esteemed compadre, Carlos Costa, that the promotions for the title defense of Johnreil Casimero against challenger Luis Rios of Panama has been placed on a ?purse bid? by the IBF, all I really need to know now is when is the fight scheduled to happen.
That?s all I need to know to book a flight to Panama City and get a chance to cover the fight and visit with Costa as well. Costa, as most philboxing.com readers know, is from Panama.
I say this because I am pretty sure that Promociones Eventos del Istmo of Panama will go all out to win the purse bid and book the fight in their country.
They not only want to do it for their people, but also to get that slight ?plus? as well for their man. A ?home court? advantage can sometimes do magic for a boxer.
This is in no way a put down of the promoters of Casimero.
The fact of the matter is that they too, I am sure, would love to put up the fight in the Philippines. But it cost a lot of money to do so and they don?t have, as of the present, enough commercial backings to hold a title fight in Manila.
Samson Gello-Ani is a good man and he loves to put up fights in the country. But Casimero is not yet a big name in his own country no matter that he is a world champion.
So with that, commercial backers and big time TV networks are not lining up at the door.
At least, not yet.
With that I hope that these powers-that-be in big business in the Philippines will follow the lead of two giant Mexican conglomerates, ?Tecate? and ?Corona?. These two huge beer companies sponsor almost all of the fights in Mexico regardless how small they are.
It does not matter if the fight is inside a ?cock pit? or at huge stadiums. Tecate or Corona will be there too.
Tecate and Corona are the driving force of boxing in Mexico.
One need not look too far to see why boxing is such a big business in Mexico and why there are so many Mexican champions and others waiting in line to be one too. Mexican companies support their local boxers and the results are obvious.
Can we do the same in the Philippines?
Of course we can!
But it will take a lot of tweaking in the mind set of big business in the country that will make them rethink their business sponsorships and not concentrate solely in basketball.
There is money in boxing and we have champions that can help generate that business. All we need is a little risk and support them in their quest for greatness.
I am sure when they see that, they will strive to do their best and attain what the great Manny Pacquiao, and now Nonito Donaire Jr has done.
It will be a win-win situation but the biggest winners of all will be our people.
Nothing could be better than that!
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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