[Editor’s Note: Pampanga-based Benjie A. Gunio is the Central Luzon Bureau Chief of the Tribune U.S.A., a multi-city U.S. newspaper with editorial/sales/production offices in California and Nevada. He writes special-events articles for Punto! Central Luzon.]
Boxing aficionados have given it names and descriptions.
The Dream Match. Fight of the Year. Clash of Two Ring Titans.
Promoters are geniuses in hyping a card. This truism is best said of the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao 12-round (non-title, welterweight) encounter at MGM-Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada, Saturday, December 6, 2008.
The press over the weekend also splashed a catchy come-on, bannering the bout, “Catch the Match of the Century”.
In exclusive interviews with my Tribune U.S.A. colleagues in Los Angeles and Las Vegas via telephone and E-mail, I gathered that those who will be at MGM-Grand Garden, and those who will watch the cable telecast beamed to many countries, will be treated to one helluva brawlfest.
Fisticuff fans in America, especially the huge Filipino-American communities across the country of 50 states, are expected to be “glued” watching what I forecast to be the Best Fight of 2008.
HBO’s globally-beamed “24/7” series will present four fight-preview segments culminating on Thursday, December 4.
“The Tribune U.S.A. will be at the Press Section, not too far from the ringside, and you will get an on-the-scene first-hand highlights from the Tribune news team,” an editorial spokesperson for the paper assured me Monday (November 17). “The crew will feed the story to you the morning after (Sunday, December 7) after the fight in time for the Punto! Central Luzon deadline.”
De La Hoya, an Olympic gold medalist before turning pro, has had multiple world titles, decisively beating such tough ring warriors as Julio Cesar Chavez and Fernando Vargas. The appellation “Golden Boy” is not merely a name given to him. In reality, he earned it—by his methodical and scientific techniques when facing an opponent. He heads Golden Boy [Boxing] Promotions and is a multimillionaire businessman with vast property ownerships in Los Angeles. When he brawls inside the ring, he has legions of Mexican-Americans rooting for him.
The Philippines’ Pacquiao, of General Santos City in Cotabato, reaped recent honors as the world’s “Best Pound-for-Pound Fighter” by the criteria of a global ring magazine.
Entering the ring at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas June 28, 2008 with a record of four world crowns to his credit, Pacquiao—dubbed boxing’s “Pacman”—beat the lights out of Mexican-American David Diaz to win [at 135 pounds] the WBC world lightweight title. The Filipino ring sensation also has ruled the arena via his classic, hard-fought triiumphs over world-acclaimed Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera, and Diaz. Tribune U.S.A. has covered all ring battles and will again be officially media-credentialed for the De La Hoya-Pacquiao card on December 6. The T/USA editor-in-chief will be assisted on fight night coverage in Vegas by the paper’s Metro Manila Bureau Chief, Ric L. Cobankiat.
De La Hoya and Pacquiao are expected to tip the scale at the weight limit of 147. Typical of big-time fights in Vegas, there will be press briefings in the days immediately preceding December 6, Las Vegas as usual to be turned into a raucous fiesta town of “boxing addicts”. The weigh-in, if past cards are a gauge, is likely set for Thursday afternoon, two days before the ring encounter.
The protagonists’ camps exuded confidence and optimism. Training details are not publicly detailed, but sportswriters in America are aware of the “heavy, intensive schedule of preparations” waged by De La Hoya and Pacquiao under the watchful eyes of their respective trainers.
Team Pacquiao exhibited one extra confident mood this week by shopping at a leading Filipino-American supermarket in Los Angeles. Familiar Team Pacquiao members were in the group: Danny Halibas, Buboy Fernandez, Nonoy Neri, Aplas Fernandez, and Jovi Halug. “Manny needs protein, so we bought ingredients for foods that he needs,” according to Neri, Pacquiao’s personal nutritionist and assistant trainer.
Brisk ticket sales assure a full-to-capacity attendance.
Mexicans love boxing and they are expected to come in droves to cheer for their idol.
Filipinos in huge numbers will be there, too, says a news source close to a ticket-selling organization, “and the Filipino convergence will include delegations flying in from the Philippines, among them tourists, business executives, showbiz stars, and government officials…Distance is not a problem anymore, with Philippine Airlines’ flights from Manila to Las Vegas via Vancouver. The flight back is Las Vegas-Vancouver-Manila. As people say, traveling is easy and is literally a song.”
De La Hoya-Pacquiao will be etched in history, fame and fat paychecks of U.S. dollars and all.
Most of all, the fighters are into “The Dream Match”, which this week was further hyped into “Catch the Match of the Century”.
