Friday, August 31, 2007 Sayson: The boxing spotlight glares on Cebu By Homer Sayson Second Overtime
CHICAGO - While preparing for his Oct. 6 rematch against the fading Marco Antonio Barrera, Manny Pacquiao has set up base in Cebu City.
You should know that by now. Unless you ignore the sports pages, or were sleeping since early August.
A devout Roman Catholic, training is religion to Manny. And according to several media accounts from the Queen City of the South, Pacquiao looks absolutely divine.
At the Wakee Salud-owned RWS Gym, PacMan is devouring fresh sparring meat imported from Los Angeles. The feast of violence and mayhem will cease only after Manny logs a total of “150 rounds,” says chief trainer Freddie Roach.
In between, Manny tickles the speed ball, skips rope, punches mitts, and abuses whichever punching bag catches his fancy on any given time and day.
And like any pug eager to reach his peak, Manny runs in the mornings. He makes the hills of Alta Vista alive with the sound of his famous feet thumping.
No data is available yet regarding Manny’s impact on the local Cebu economy, but his presence is undeniably a major boost to tourism. The well-loved boxing icon is propagating a buzz beyond the reach of any pamphlet, TV commercial or newspaper ad.
Thanks to Manny, Cebu City is getting a wholesome glob of attention from the global boxing community.
Three days ago, cable giant HBO (Home Box Office) dispatched a three-man crew from New York to Cebu. They will film Pacquiao at work, and once the segment airs to hype the pay-per-view event, it will reach the Seven Seas. From Labangon to Laos.
The Philippine national media has washed up on Cebu’s shores as well. They’re covering Manny like a carpet, watching every step he makes, every breath he takes.
Leading the media blitz is ABS-CBN ace reporter Dyan Castillejo, whose amazing journalistic work is surpassed only by her grace and beauty.
Ronnie Nathanielsz, descending from his lofty perch at Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, is also in Cebu. His chronicles of the ongoing Manny Pacquiao saga is a preferred staple among Philboxing.com diehards.
The local media is having tons of fun, and work, too.
Sun.Star Cebu workhorse Rommel Manlosa and The Freeman’s Manny Villaruel are constant viewers of Pacquiao workouts. And like good reporters, they’re keenly eyeing PacMan. No detail escapes them, not even a mistimed punch, or an untied shoe lace.
There probably are days when Rommel and Manny would rather be elsewhere than at the RWS Gym in Labangon, but they go there anyway, to relish the rare experience of watching today’s best pound-for-pound fighter train for a blockbuster fight.
BATAWANG UPDATE. Some guys have all the luck, so says Rod Stewart in one of his hit songs.
Apparently, Cebuano boxer Bert Batawang isn’t one of those guys.
Batawang was supposed to fight at the World Cup last Aug 11 in Sacramento. But that date was knocked out by a foe’s detached retina.
Batawang was groomed to challenge the IBF junior flyweight belt of Ulises Solis this Sept. 15. But that, too, was shelved due to Solis’ injured shoulder.
Quietly under the radar, international promoter Sampson Lewkowicz was able to move the Solis-Batawang duel to Oct. 4. Sadly, Solis recently re-injured his shoulder. And so Batawang is, again, left without a foe.
Eventually, though, “Batawang will get the title shot he deserves,” Lewkowicz told me over the phone yesterday. Unforunately, it likely won’t happen until “November or December.”
I talked to Batawang yesterday. Crestfallen, he sounded like the saddest Ninja in the planet.
But he’ll wait for his shot at the IBF belt. Wherever, whenever.
JQ. With Batawang in LA is Jeremiah Quijano, son of the late Titing Quijano of the defunct Quijano Boxing Stable.
Once an amateur boxing standout at SWU, Jeremiah is in charge of Batawang’s training and diet. And in these extremely trying times, he also acts as the Ninja’s counselor, his crying shoulder.
Like Batawang, Jeremiah has been in the US since June 24. Jeremiah terribly misses his family – wife Jessica Codilla, and their two young kids, a four-year old girl and a two-year old boy.
Needless to say, the business of boxing ain’t easy. (homsay@hotmail.com)
