CHICAGO — Boxing benefactor Rolly Hiso, the former team manager of the RP National Cycling Team, invited me to join him and Aljoe Jaro for lunch in this city’s fabulous Chinatown.
My wife had an appointment, so I begged off. In lieu of what certainly would have been a feast, I was left at home, baby-sitting my 3 1/2 year old son AJ and his rambunctious ways.
Jaro is the flamboyant manager of Bernabe Concepcion, who will fight Gabriel Elizondo for the vacant NABF super bantamweight title. Like Rodel Mayol and Mercito Gesta’s fights, Elizondo’s quest is also in the undercard of the Erik-Morales-David Diaz WBC lightweight championship at the All-State Arena in Rosemont.
Jaro also manages Florante Condes, who recently annexed the IBF minimum weight diadem from Muhammad Rachman in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Steve Flynn’s public relations outfit in Las Vegas handled the media credentials for this Top Rank event. An e-mail from SFE instructed sportswriters to collect their temporary credentials at the Chicago Hilton beginning on Thursday morning.
At about 3 p.m., I rushed to the Chicago Hilton to claim said temporary credential. This time, I eluded the hotel’s atrociously high parking rates. I went to a public parking lot near Balboa street for $12. The downside is that I had to walk a few blocks in the boiling 90-degree weather.
Sweating bullets, I looked like I just sparred six rounds when I got to the Chicago Hilton. I went to the Normandie Lounge, the designated. media center at the mezzanine level. Much to my consternation, the organizers decided not to give temporary credentials, opting to just distribute the fight-night credentials on Saturday afternoon at the arena.
Great, all that trouble for nothing.
And given that I got there at around 3:45 pm, I couldn’t interview any of the boxers. It was their nap time. So I went home, empty-handed.
Today is the weigh-in. I’ll be at the Hilton before lunch. I expect to talk to all Pinoy fighters. Good luck to me, again. (Homer D. Sayson)
