Wednesday, December 05, 2007 Victories boost promoter’s prospects
THE victories of Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista and AJ “Bazooka” Banal highlighted Third Force Incorporated’s promotion last Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
Third Force president Noli Eala gave credit to the ALA Boys who poured their efforts to its first ever boxing promotion.
“It’s a great start for any new promoter. We’re very glad with the reception of the boxing community. It enhanced the idea of Third Force. But we give it to Boom-Boom and AJ, they made this promotion a highly successful one,” Eala said during the thanksgiving dinner.
Bautista won his comeback fight by scoring a unanimous decision to the extra tough and talented Antonio “Barrio” Meza while Banal scored a TKO victory over Jovanny “Bambino” Soto on the ninth round.
“It’s a learning process for most of us. There’s a lot of difference in boxing and in basketball and it is very difficult to predict (in terms of business and marketing strength). But we learn from working with people who are into this business and we will definitely work for more boxing events to pursue our investment,” said the former PBA commissioner.
Aside from the boxing show, Third Force dished out entertainment, which includes the sultry Rachel Lobangco’s fiery dance number, new girl group Kitty Girls and the illustrious entrance of the main event fighters.
Eala revealed that they only had less than three months to prepare but the overwhelming reception of the Metro Manila audience gave them added resolve to continue what they had started.
“The whole horizon is opened for us right now and we are interested to promote two big fights next year, hopefully we can get a world championship fight. These good results we attribute to our partnership with the ALA Gym, the WBO, the GAB and of course the media,” continued Eala.
The Payback card was an instant hit as the result of the gates sales at 7,400 tickets, is more than enough to show that boxing can be a big hit in the nation’s capital. An estimate of 10,000 people attended the card. (RCM)
