VICTORY HAS MANY FATHERS? (AND MANY SPONSORS TOO!)
By Manny Piñol
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 27 Dec 2012
Bangkok, Thailand ? This one is for the books.
Have you seen a boxing event where a boxer rated as an underdog gets inside the ring in a pair of red boxing shorts but finishes the fight wearing blue sparkling boxing pants emblazoned with the sponsor?s logo?
Ryan Rey Ponteras, 22, wore a pair of the signature Braveheart Boxing Club red shorts with a Philippine flag decal in the left side and a logo of my brother?s company, the North Cotabato Palm Oil Corp., in the right side as he got into the ring yesterday against Thailand?s Ruslee Samo who was defending the International Boxing Federation (IBF) Pan Pacific Flyweight title.
Actually, Ponteras was given a pair of blue boxing shorts by the sponsor of the event, Chevrolet, but I told trainer Aljo Jaro to just let Ryan Rey wear his Braveheart Boxing Club shorts.
Nobody seemed to notice or maybe even cared when Ponteras stepped into the ring with the red boxing shorts because everybody was focused on the defending champion who was expected to have an easy fight against the Filipino challenger who had an awful record of 12 wins (6 by KO), 9 losses and 1 draw.
Honestly, I believe Chevrolet was not really keen or excited in having Ponteras wear the blue Chevrolet shorts because no sponsor in his right mind wanted to see his logo go down with the boxer who was expected to lose.
But things changed when Ryan Rey punished the champion in the first round and proceeded to knock down Ruslee for a mandatory eight count in the second.
That was when, the sponsors probably realized that the Filipino fighter had a chance of winning against Ruslee and they frantically shouted after Round 2 ?shorts, shorts, shorts!?
A blue shorts emblazoned with the brand name ?Chevrolet? was immediately brought to Ponteras? corner after the second round and the Filipino boxer was asked to take off his red boxing shorts on top of the ring, in front of the spectators and in full view of millions of viewers of Thailand?s Channel 7.
He then proceeded to fight starting Round 3 in a pair of blue boxing shorts with the marking ?Chevrolet.?
I wonder if the sponsors of the blue shorts would have even bothered to ask Ponteras to change his shorts if he was being battered and punished by the Thai champion inside the ring.
In spite of the embarrassment of taking off his red pants without even a towel wrapped around him to hide his butt and crotch, Ponteras went about his business and proceeded to punish the Thai champion in Round 3 and 4 before finishing him off with powerful combinations in Round 5.
And so the ?Lastic Man? from Mindanao, who used to fight alone, travel alone and suffer his nine losses alone, made history as perhaps the only professional boxer who changed his pants in the middle of the ring just as his fortunes as a prizefighter turned from bleak to very bright and exciting.
Indeed, ?Victory has many fathers, defeat is an orphan.?
Just as in boxing, ?Winners have many sponsors, a loser has none.?
http://philboxing.com/news/pix/ponteras.wins.over.samo.in.thailand.330w.jpg
Photos: Ryan Rey Ponteras, in red boxing shorts (top photo), chases champion Ruslee Samo in the first round of their IBF Pan Pacific flyweight championship. Ponteras went on to knock out the Thai champion in the 5th round, this time already wearing a pair of ?Chevrolet? blue boxing shorts (above photo).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Manny Piñol.
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