Wednesday, January 14, 2009 PSC facility ready for champs' training By Roderick Osis
TWO of the country's top fighters are set to train in the sports facility owned by the Philippine Sports Commission here.
WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Peñalosa and IBF/IBO flyweight titleholder Nonito Donaire Jr. were given the go-signal to train at the ABAP gym in Teachers Camp, Baguio City.
"The facility is ready for them," Glicerio Catolico Jr. of the PSC said.
Catolico said that Donaire arrived two days ago while Peñalosa will arrive Wednesday, and will eventually start their light training at the PSC training center.
Catolico added that the facility has been preparing for the two champions arrival since last week.
The PSC training center has been the home base of the Philippine boxing team for high-altitude training.
Donaire will risk his belts to challenger WBO super flyweight titleholder Fernando Montiel at the Araneta Coliseum on March 15, while Peñalosa stakes his crown against No. 1 contender Eric Morel in a mandatory defense with the particulars to be settled after a purse bid in Puerto Rico on January 12.
Peñalosa and Donaire sought approval from ABAP chairman Manny Pangilinan to use the ABAP facilities, which include two full-sized rings, in Baguio City during a meeting at the Cantada Sports Center in Taguig. Also at the meeting were ABAP president Ricky Vargas and ABAP secretary general Patrick Gregorio.
The two world champions initially planned to leave for Baguio City last Sunday but postponed the trip until they received clearance from ABAP. To avoid delay in their preparations, Donaire and Peñalosa began punching mitts last Monday in Mandaluyong.
Donaire, 26, is coming off a sixth round knockout win over South Africa's Moruti Mthalane in Las Vegas and will be gunning for his second world title against Montiel.
His father-in-law Gerry Marcial, who is visiting here from San Francisco, said the win over Mthalane came under difficult circumstances.
Donaire's timetable stipulates eight weeks of hard training for Montiel with Thursdays and Fridays off. He was scheduled to consult sports medicine specialist Dr. Raul Canlas last Tuesday on the condition of his left pinkie which was fractured in his sixth round knockout win over Moruti Mthalane last November.
Donaire was quoted as saying in the philboxing.com website the first option is to train at the ABAP gym in Teachers Village but if there is a conflict in schedules with the national team, a fall-back is to work out at the nearby Shape-Up boxing gym along Naguilian Road.
Philippine Basketball League (PBL) commissioner Chino Trinidad said that he was impressed with the Cooyesan facilities during a recent PBL road trip being a one-stop venue which offers living quarters (the executive suite has three separate rooms), a supermarket, a boxing gym with a regulation ring, and courts for basketball, tennis and badminton.
Trinidad requested Baguio City-based sports organizer Leo Arnaiz to arrange the use of the Cooyesan facilities for Donaire and Peñalosa.
Peñalosa's nephew Dodie Boy Jr. will also fly in from Cebu and join the group in the city. The 17-year-old prospect recently secured a Games and Amusements Board license to turn pro but was dissuaded from making his debut last December 27.
Dodie Boy Jr., a bantamweight, is being eyed for the national pool with the goal of making it to the 2012 London Olympics.
