Quijano: AI judges weigh in on Arnel Pineda
Saturday, March 20, 2010
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SO what did I think of Arnel Pineda’s version of the “Lupang Hinirang?”
It doesn’t matter what I think, guys. Though I am notorious for strumming a guitar and croaking out some discordant tunes when I have had too many last rounds, I think it’s best to limit my musings to the fight game where I allegedly appear to exhibit some form of acceptable proficiency.
Instead let’s hear it from the experts themselves, the American Idol judges.
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RANDY JACKSON—Yo listen, listen man… You know I’m a big fan of yours and Journey is close to my heart, but I thought you overdid at the end bro’. It started out nice but it was quite pitchy towards the end, dude.
ELLEN DEGENERES—Hi Arnel. Am so proud of you. Let me give you a hug… I love your hair, by the way…
KARA DIOGUARDI—You know, I think it’s kinda unfair to judge your whole performance by that last note… I do understand that maybe the pressure of performing your national anthem for a Manny Pacquiao fight must have been tremendous..and that you wanted to end it with a flourish... but had you started it on a lower key, it would have been perfect.
SIMON COWELL—I’ll be honest, Arnel. It was a bit drab, but there were moments in there where we heard the big voice that got you the Journey gig. Having said that, you flubbed it at the very end.
Had it been one of our contestants here on American Idol trying to make it past Hollywood Week, I would have been more forgiving. But since you represent Journey, I expected much more…You forgot that you were not in a concert but in a stadium for a boxing event where the audience is composed of proto-brained boxing fans looking for their daily fix of violence.
Still, I admire your courage in attempting to hit that last note. In retrospect, the struggle to hit that note was actually much more compelling than the fight itself.
PUNCHLINE—“I can’t prepare for his spinning elbows or his spinning kicks and stuff like that. The same goes for him training and preparing to fight me. Nobody kicks as hard as I do.
“Nobody kicks with the malicious intent that I do and he hasn’t gone against anybody whose Thai clinch is as good as mine. We’re both going to have to find out a lot about each other that night”. -Fil-am Brandon Vera on fighting Jon “Bones” Jones today.
INBOX. My esteemed companero Atty. Ed Griño, who is based in Toledo City, shot me an e-mail to share his thoughts on Manny’s latest fight. Ed says his client named Nestor swears that Joshua Clottey made another $1.5 by betting his prize money that he would go the distance.
I don’t know Ed. While Clottey was indeed disgustingly too flaccid in that fight, we would have to presume that he stood to gain more in terms of career opportunities and prize money had he beaten the world’s number one pound- for- pound fighter.
Right now, the “unexciting and unappealing fighter” tag will be difficult to shake off and it may cost him the big fights.
Another compañero, Atty. Jeff Amante, liked my last column so much that he came up with reason no. 9 on why Joshua Clottey fought with his gloves glued to his face:
He wanted to give a new meaning to the word “defending champion.” Nice one, Jeff.
Thanks also to Last Rounders Mark Quijano(who is now based in South Korea) and Roger Cadag who took time out from their busy schedules to share their thoughts.
LAST ROUNDS. Are on my sister Jeehan, my niece Bianca Nicole Q. Hubahib for graduating from Primary school today and my “inaanak” Juana Therese Heyrosa. Cheers!
