Monday, October 08, 2007 Oro bet, Pacquiao score for country By Stephen Capillas
CAGAYAN de Oro and the rest of the Philippines had a huge weekend with their native sons winning in impressive fashion over their foes in the local and international boxing rings.
Barangay Puerto's pride Milan Milendo carved out a third round knockout win to win the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Asia-Pacific mini-flyweight title before hometown fans at the Mindanao Polytechnic State College (MPSC) gym late Saturday evening.
His victory came the night before Filipino People's Champ Manny Pacquiao shrugged off an illegal blow by Mexican rival Marco Antonio Barrera to pull off a unanimous points victory at the Mandalay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas at past1:00 p.m. Philippine time.
In text messages sent to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro, Provincial Press Office chief Maricel Casiño-Rivera recounted that the first two rounds between Milendo and Thai foe Naupayak Sakkririn consisted mostly of two pugilists sizing each other up for the fight.
"Late in the third round, Milendo managed to score blows on Sakkririn causing the latter to fall down three times and forcing the referee to stop the fight in favor of Milendo," Rivera said.
Local boxing promoters and even Capitol officials said the bout is seen to propel Milendo, who is honing his pro ring career under under Cebu's famed Ala Stable, into the big time.
Milendo trained under the city's boxing program under Barangay 6 chairman Mario Eronico and has two Palarong Pambansa gold medals under his belt as well as victories over touted boxers Fabio Marfa and Alex Aroy.
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Prior to the fight Milendo promised he won't let hometown fans down and would emerge victorious from the fight, three months after training for a title bout only to be told that his foe was unavailable.
Milendo's WBO title fight is the main event in the Visayas-Mindanao Boxing Cup in the MPSC gym that in turn came on the heels of the 2007 Smart National Open Youth and Women Amateur Boxing Championships in Misamis Oriental at the Capitol grounds last week.
Following Milendo's victory, Cagayan de Oro's city streets remained largely empty and traffic free as city residents opted to either attend mass at a nearby church or stay at home in anticipation of the Pacquiao-Barrera rematch.
Malls in Cagayan de Oro offered pay per view screenings with two showing the bout in their respective cinemas.
The Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) said it has not recorded any petty crimes as of 2:00 p.m. Sunday.
Manny Paquiao's mother, Nanay Dionesia, voiced concern in General Santos City after watching an illegal blow delivered by Barrera to Pacquiao after the 11th round ended.
In a live radio interview, Nanay Dionesia said she was confident that Manny could finish the fight in the third round.
In their short dialog over the radio, Dionesia warmly congratulated her son for his victory.
In Lanao del Norte and Iligan City, both Iliganons and Maranaw residents of the province stayed at home while some of the commercial centers televised the big fight on pay per view.
Businessmen and passengers on board buses from Pagadian City and Misamis Occidental, Iligan City listened to their radios but passenger traffic was noticeably low.
