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Once they’re done with the repair job on the severely damaged Miguel Cotto, the former world welterweight boxing champion can explain that he didn’t mind losing to twin warriors in Las Vegas Sunday.
TO DEAR MANNY PACQUIAO, our country’s hope and pride, please pause for a few seconds before you take on the biggest mission of your life as a warrior.
HE DOESN’T WISH FOR ONE, but Bob Arum says it may not be easy to prevent a bloodbath at the Las Vegas MGM Grand on Saturday (Sunday morning in Manila).
THERE WAS GUARDED JUBILATION among boxing fans when news about Miguel Cotto’s alleged weight problem spread.
RIGHT NOW, he cannot event summon enough courage to say how much he weighs. But Miguel Cotto should also be asked if he would dare rock ‘n’ roll with Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas.
The papers on Monday reported the death of Angel Nepomuceno, 81, father of bowler Paeng Nepomuceno, who has won for the country a total of four World Cups in three different decades.
THAT WAS A GREAT TRIPLE from downtown the House committee on games and amusements scored after it offered to help the PBA following that third successive assault by a professional player on a ringside viewer.
PLEASE COME OUT, STEP FORWARD and prove your genuine love for Philippine sports.
FREDDIE Roach did not have ready praises for the national men’s boxing team but the world’s top trainer, he with the keen eye for winners, said he would be disappointed if our boxers failed to land medals in this year’s Southeast Asian Games.
Unlike a new book, the basketball career of Wynne Arboleda needs no foreword.
The PBA was visibly caught flatfooted by that brutal attack on a heckling fan at the special ringside section of the Araneta Coliseum last week.
THERE WAS A FEARSOME PICTURE in the papers last week of a burly PBA guard barging angrily through the special ringside section of the Araneta Coliseum.
(Agimat Picks Pacman: Manny Pacquiao will stop Miguel Cotto in their forthcoming fight for the World Boxing Organization welterweight crown inside 10 rounds. This prediction was made by former Sen. Ramon Revilla Sr., popularly known in the local movie world as Agimat, earlier in the week.
FANS WHO RETURNED HOME IN A huff from the Big Dome last Sunday were partly to blame for allowing themselves to be blinded by the dazzle of adjectives.
HE SURE KNOWS HOW TO FIGHT, squarely mano-a-mano or wildly under the table. Battle-scarred North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Piñol, a former newspaperman, also knows how to take defeat meekly.
THE PBA will celebrate its 35th anniversary as Asia’s first pro basketball league on Sunday nursing a scorching love story that’s par for a scandal sheet.
NO NEED TO DEFEND THE CHOICE of trainer Freddie Roach as part of the selection committee that will pick members of the Philippine national boxing team to the Laos Southeast Asian Games in December.
AN INCREDIBLE WIN scored by an obscure but hotly hyped Filipino boxer at the Cuneta Astrodome on Saturday has remained without a proper label.
FROM ROLLING-with-the-puncheses to one-miss-you-die, it’s now down to a race-against-the-clock.
WE WERE ALL CAUGHT PLAYING A merciless game over the wicked weekend whose name could well be rolling-with-the punches.
THERE WILL NEVER BE A CORRECT count of those directly affected by tropical storm “Ondoy,” but the leading national newspaper nevertheless put the number at about 300,000.
HE LOVED TO DO GREAT THINGS quietly, almost in secret. What’s odder was he would often refuse credit for his selfless deeds.
GOING BY SUPERLATIVES, Floyd Mayweather Sr. sounded more star-struck than normally mad when he claimed Manny Pacquiao must’ve been into steroids.
HIMSELF SPEAKING, FLOYD Mayweather Jr. bared there was rust in his performance against Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas over the weekend.
BANGKOK — THE TIMELY ADVICE, AN urgent warning actually, came as a complete surprise. It was uttered over a sea-food dinner by an expatriate who, any way you look at him, had fallen madly in love with Thailand.
BANGKOK— Maybe it's plain coincidence that the cry for revolutionary reforms from members of the losing Philippine amateur boxing team was sounded out on the way home last Sunday, during a six-hour layover in Amsterdam, connecting point for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed all over Europe.
MILAN — THEY CAME HERE WITH THE HOPE of returning to the mainstream of world amateur boxing.
MILAN — Philippine Sports Commission chair Harry Angping did not bat an eyelash upon being asked for help.
MILAN — WITH ONLY LIGHTWEIGHT Joegin Ladon dropping his bout in the first round of the World Boxing Championship here, Team Philippines, bankrolled by Smart Pinoy and the Philippine Sports Commission, opened up with a promising 4-1 card.
MILAN— He would've not qualified here had they asked for the right credentials. Charly Suarez reported to the front desk for this exacting world boxing tournament with practically an empty pocket.
MILAN — The dream boxing gold medal for the Philippines is not available here.
MILAN—HARRY TAÑAMOR, WHO failed in his second straight try at an Olympic medal during last year’s Beijing Games—he had flopped previously in Athens 2004—is a no-show here.
AS HOME TO THE BEST BOXER ON THE planet, the Philippines should be sending its finest, most promising fighters to Milan, when that European fashion capital plays host to the World Amateur Boxing Championships starting Monday.
JESUS IRIBE, who tries to wrest Brian Viloria’s IBF light flyweight crown on Sunday, has been described by scouts as a strong, engaging fighter who loves to charge and do battle inside.
IN MY COLUMN ON TUESDAY, I wrote: “The World Boxing Association must move to immediately strike out from its official records what Panamanian brawler Rafael Concepcion had falsely preached about genuine courage from Las Vegas.”
BOB ARUM WILL NEVER REalize how far back in gladiatorial history Nonito Donaire’s grim stand had taken the manly sport of boxing last Sunday.
THE WORLD BOXING ASSOCIATION MUST move to immediately strike out from its official records what Panamanian brawler Rafael Concepcion had falsely preached about genuine courage from Las Vegas on Sunday.
IF BERNABE CONCEPCION WAS TRY-ing to send a message by missing the press conference for his big world title fight in Las Vegas tomorrow, the promising 21-year-old got his signals mixed.
ED PICSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, left for Cuba last week to put in place the training of Filipino boxers who travelled to Havana in two batches.
THERE PROMISES TO BE A CONTINuing love affair between Cory Aquino and the Filipino people after the end of the 10-day period of national mourning yesterday, what with endless flowers and wishes being personally delivered to her grave and in front of her home on Times Street in Quezon City.
IN THE END, WHAT TRULY MATtered was that Cory Aquino gave her fondest, most memorable performance during that rain-drenched farewell march to where she was buried next to her martyred husband.
YOU CAN’T BLAME BOB ARUM FOR losing his cool after his sales pitch for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight failed to reach the man at bat.
SOLDIERS, THEIR MIGHTY GUNS READY, stood metal-stiff on the rooftops around the Rizal Memorial Stadium when a resplendent President Cory Aquino declared the 1991 Manila Southeast Asian Games open.
HE NEVER CRIED, “THE EAGLE HAS LANDed,” but boxing missionary Michael Marley must’ve exclaimed as though he had just witnessed the first moon landing after he was assured that a world title belt would be staked in Manny Pacquiao’s next fight.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL FILIPINO boxing fans, regardless of age and creed, to come to the aid of promoter cum laude Bob Arum.
THANKS TO MANNY PACQUIAO, there's now a limitless demand for Filipino fighters to appear in international cards.
THERE HAS BEEN NO WORD ON THE whereabouts of Filipino basketball officials who did not make it to a decisive meeting in Geneva this week.
NO QUESTION ABOUT THE RESULT, Manny Pacquiao is sure to beat Miguel Cotto.
THERE WAS NO GUN-BEATING THREE-point basket, no breath-taking birdie putt, but it was a sporting triumph of the heartwarming kind scored through the police blotter.
Regarding your column about RP athletes missing the train in their next gold medal hunt: The train might as well leave without our athletes. It will save us many an embarrassing moment in Laos.
IT PAINS THE PINOY HEART, THIS warning that many of our athletes are bound to miss the train in their next gold medal hunt.
THERE’S A NEW PROPOSAL FOR MANNY Pacquiao’s next big fight. Certain quarters suggest that they skip the WBO welterweight title and stake a new crown instead.
IT’S NOT purely out of childish curiosity that the meat market crowd now wonders why Manny Pacquiao’s opponents get bigger and bigger by the day.
WHO BETWEEN THE TWO TOP sports leaders in the country—Peping Cojuangco and Harry Angping—do you trust more?
THERE’S NOTHING bad with helping correct what’s wrong. Right? OK, but please count this as an apology for what we’ve succeeded in straightening out last week.
SOMETHING WAS gravely wrong with a recent report (not in the Inquirer) about a bunch of national athletes who supposedly approached and asked a millionaire sportsman to take over as president of the national cycling association.
HE CAME PREPARED to be surprised but got the shock of his life instead.
Please accept my sincerest greetings from the Republic of the Philippines, where basketball is played and followed with religious intensity.
ERRATUM: It was reported in this column on Thursday that “youthful sports godfather Mikee Romero made a great heroic act when he refused a vital post in the national sports hierarchy.” That was incorrect.
YOUTHFUL sports godfather Mikee Romero has taken many great win-win shots, but that stoic hesitation he maintained after he was offered a vital post in the national sports hierarchy takes the cake.
GOING BY its record, it's no longer easy falling in love with the GAB (Games and Amusements Board), whether in or off the boxing ring.
YOU’RE BOUND to lose if you bet that Peping Cojuangco will rejoin the congressional race next year.
PROMOTER cum lauded Bob Arum, no doubt, has the highest respect for world boxing pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao.
THE POPULAR modern-day practice is for the bereaved to first secure a death certificate before burying the dear departed.
THE PBA - not thanks to terribly dwindling gates—cannot afford a first-rate legal mind, but it should consider tapping the newly retired justice secretary Raul Gonzalez to assist in legal matters.
ORLANDO coach Stan Van Gundy swore he was greatly amazed how they still ended up figuring in an overtime shoot-out despite yielding 20 turnovers Monday.
THE TEAM did not disintegrate mysteriously like that ill-fated Air France Airbus over the Atlantic, but there’s a concerned cry for the Orlando Magic.
THIS IS an urgent call for Dr. Mikee Romero, youthful and respected Filipino sportsman, to stop swindlers from using his name and raking it in through the Philippine Olympic Committee.
IT DID not happen inside the boxing ring, but the cruel knockout scored by an Indonesian journeyman over a colorful Filipino pool hope in Mandaluyong City on Sunday was so brutal the loser should be given a thorough check-up.
IT’S NOT the legendary Efren “Bata” Reyes topping the World Pool Championship again. In fact, there may never be another victory of that magical magnitude which took place in Cardiff, Wales, in July 1999.
Featherweight boxer Lorenzo Villanueva, unbeaten in 14 pro fights, could readily qualify as an aspirant Manny Pacquiao.
Well-meaning sportsmen could not believe it when they learned how the Philippine Olympic Committee had slammed and slimed the official election of former national cyclist Rolando Hiso as president of the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines (PhilCycling).
Either the accused did not report for office or the charges against him were all fictitious.
IT’S HARD to mistake the PSC chair for the POC president. These two top Filipino sports officials own thickly contrasting managerial styles.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco may have to seek police help if he hopes to save what little sanity is left in the POC.
Senator Manny Villar on Thursday was once again the poverty-scarred boy walking back into the chaotic Tondo wet market where he retailed fish to make both ends meet.
WOE TO THE MAN WHO BLINDFOLDed the generous tycoon now bankrolling our national basketball development program and then worked to isolate Nic Jorge in the national cage scene.
UNLIKE election lawyer Romy Macalintal, boxing scholar Hermie Rivera, who joined Team Pacquiao at the Wild Card gym a couple of weeks before the Hatton fight, didn’t have the extra $5 to bet on Manny Pacquiao.
DID RICKY HATTON leave his shield n the dugout when he walked into the Las Vegas battle site on Sunday?
GIVE ME one reason why he should go on fighting,” Freddie Roach demanded.
HE COULD’VE COMMITTED other mistakes, but poor Ricky Hatton chose the most fatal flaw of all. He did not check first how powerful and speedy his opponent was.
FREDDIE ROACH ORDERED MANNY Pacquiao to please knock on the door first.
IT’S HOGWASH what Ricky Hatton has been saying that he will match Manny Pacquiao’s phenomenal speed inside the boxing ring.
TRAINER FREDDIE ROACH DID A magnificent job pulling out a pitifully outclassed Gerry Peñalosa from his fiery world championship challenge in Puerto Rico on Sunday.
POOR GERRY PEÑALOSA in Puerto Rico on Sunday was no better than that little brave boy who tried to save a burning building using a garden hose.
IT’S TOO late, there’s no way we can stop it now, so let’s all join hands and pray, fervently please, that Gerry Peñalosa comes out of the mismatch in one piece.
Many fans of his continue to be puzzled why Erap Estrada refused to ride the ring and hog the spotlight on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
The knockout win, which confirmed Nonito Donaire’s world flyweight kingship, was turned instantly into a Manny Pacquiao party inside the overjoyed boxing ring on Sunday (April 19).
After all he had said and done, Nonito Donaire Jr., sad to say, has remained a world boxing champion waiting to be fully crowned.
There was no direct suggestion for me to change topics.
If Peping Cojuangco still has a few fans left—despite his sorry record as POC president—his handful of believers should waste no time and rally around their troubled chief.
Now Bob Arum is telling Juan Manuel Marquez that the shortest way to a third fight with Manny Pacquiao is not via a straight route.
Last week's boxing puzzle had experts wondering why the great Juan Manuel Marquez was left out in the list of Manny Pacquiao’s potential year-end foes.
The Philippine Olympic Committee promptly closed the case the day after the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines picked a new set of officers on Tuesday.
CALL IT a coup or whatever, but it cannot be said that the power shake-up in RP billiards has come unannounced.
MUHAMMAD ALI was aptly called a one-man festival during his prime. Ali, the greatest, was not exaggerating when he said he could stop the world whenever he fought.
Question of the day: How has the fearless text-message world been treating MegaManny?
That creepy term, nonperforming, which was used by this reporter to describe the tenure of Gov. Jesus Sacdalan, landed like a foul punch on countless supporters of the North Cotabato provincial executive.
There were only three modern-day Filipinos worthy of representing the country in the world’s hall of noble people: Carlos P. Romulo, Cory Aquino and Manny Pacquiao.
THE biggest tragedy for us poor Pinoys was how Manny Pacquiao, our Great Brown Hope, suffered his biggest defeat last week.
Mark this as a season of disgrace for the poor Filipino.
Ed Picson, Filipino boxing official of the hour, is a card-carrying Manny Pacquiao fanatic. So what’s this we hear that he has started to distance himself from the Pacman?
Something odd happened on the way to selecting the chief operations officer for the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP).
Born a gardener, who spent a lifetime caring for flowers, he died without a single petal in his pocket.
The first thing to determine about Nestor R. Vera Cruz is if he’s indeed of this time and place.
(LAST POLL: There may be no safer solution but to hold an election—to be conducted by an independent body—to resolve the leadership fight in Philippine cycling.
What a thrill it was as Harry Angping, sports hero of the day, bore down with ruthless intensity on perceived evils around his newly acquired kingdom, the powerful Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
It’s the biggest story of the week, how Juan Manuel Marquez, definitely no stranger to Manny Pacquiao, won a very difficult bout when he stopped the “Baby Bull,” Juan Diaz, in the ninth round to confirm his greatness on Sunday.
There’s reason to believe and celebrate the bright, new direction amateur boxing development in the Philippines has taken.
No beating around the bush: Ricky Hatton can beat Manny Pacquiao.
MANILA, Philippines—The visiting Mexican boxer, falsely labeled panteonero or grave digger, failed miserably in his job to provide Gerry Peñalosa a legit workout.
CEBU CITY, Philippines—It’s a must for every loyal boxing fans to watch Gerry Peñalosa when he takes a Hall-of-Fame test at the Cebu Coliseum here tonight.
A Valentine greeting from Ricky Florencio, the diminutive founder of the Marikina Youth Baseball Foundation, asked what your reporter had been up to.
HE was not out to do a Robin Hood. Mac Cardona, in the first place, never stole from basketball fans or the affluent pro league itself.
MANILA, Philippines—Extraordinary feats not only make heroes, they also help mold a people’s faith.
MANILA, Philippines—It’s easy to suspect that the Philippine expedition to this year’s Southeast Asian Games is being led by two captains of contrasting style and persuasion.
MANILA, Philippines—Pardon please, but there’s something in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s dogged drive to link up with US President Barack Obama that has started to oddly resemble RP’s campaign to bag its first Olympic gold medal.
MANILA, Philippines—If Ricky Hatton stands tough and firm inside the ring, the way he did in the screaming purse tug-of-war against Manny Pacquiao, then we’ll have a hell of a fight come May 2.
MANILA, Philippines—He had done it before. We’ve heard it before.
MANILA, Philippines—The date was Feb. 20, 1997, winter time in Tokyo.The Japanese outdoors shone like one pretty, silver-hued Christmas card.
MANILA, Philippines—There’s a picture of cyclist Coryn Rivera, in sparkling red attire, splashed in cyclingnews.com (World Center of Cycling) that’s sure to make every sports-loving Pinoy proud.
MANILA, Philippines—They had succeeded in sweeping the case under the rug, so to say.
MANILA, Philippines—No, it was not a simple case of the deal being sealed over beer.
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—The best news to come out of our country’s desperate drive for a first Olympic gold medal is not the P12-million incentive dangled by tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan in this colorful capital on Thursday.
EITHER he lost his way or his father did not give him permission to take the trip to Bacolod.
IT was not February and there were no firm, fearless nuns around. No tanks prowled that hallowed stretch of world-famous EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue), near the Shrine.
MANILA, Philippines—Now, it turns out that the 50-50 split Manny Pacquiao had allegedly agreed to during an initial money discussion with promoter cum laude Bob Arum happened in the discomfort of, sorry Madame, a comfort room.
All Manny Pacquiao may have to do is cambio, change gear, to ensure victory in his projected bombs-away fight against Englishman Ricky Hatton in May.
THERE are two groups claiming leadership in the national cycling association and the Philippine Olympic Committee is hard-pressed to make an immediate ruling to end the squabble.
MANILA, Philippines—Ricky Hatton, no matter what Freddie Roach predicts, will not convert into a brother or distant cousin of Manny Pacquiao’s last two victims.
No Obama-look alike out there, but it’s easy to believe in the change they will seek during the national amateur boxing summit slated in hospitable Bacolod later this month.
MANILA, Philippines—There’s no way the Philippine Olympic Committee can aptly lay claim to Manny Pacquiao’s monumental achievements in the past year.
MANILA, Philippines—Honestly speaking, Nonoy Occena of Hulo, Mandaluyong, said it was a hopeless bout between a goat and a bull.
MANILA, Philippines—Unlike the coming of the New Year—may 2009 be glorious for you all, dear friends—the decision by the young boxer tagged as Marvelous Pacquiao to remain amateur is not irrevocable.
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Olympic Committee was warned Monday against sanctioning the election of officers by a group claiming to be the majority in the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines (PhilCycling) because this “would constitute a gross violation of established rules.”
MANILA, Philippines—The original plan was for a requiem mass to be celebrated for Olympian Narciso Bernardo at the San Felipe Neri parish church in Mandaluyong City on Saturday afternoon.
To share Christmas joy, Richard Merk, premier Filipino jazz artist, sends this heartwarming little tale.
MANILA, Philippines—He looks every inch a young college student, which he is.
The tip came a couple of weeks too late. A report in the International Herald Tribune suggests Oscar de la Hoya could’ve still pulled the trigger during his Dream Match against Manny Pacquiao.
The report was not apt. It said the Iraqi journalist who hurled two shoes at US President George W. Bush missed his target.
The call of the moment, from the whole boxing world, is for us ecstatic Filipinos to do a Manny Pacquiao.
(SECOND SALUTE: Sportsman Rudy Salud, founding sec-gen of the WBC, had announced well ahead of other experts that underdog Manny Pacquiao, shorter and smaller than Oscar De La Hoya, would prove oddsmakers wrong.
LOS ANGELES—Manny Pacquiao neither had a bruise nor a bump to show when he left here for home Monday, after figuring in the biggest, richest battle of his boxing life.
LAS VEGAS—No, he did not effectively slam the door of the Hall of Fame on his career with that tragic foldup.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada—Doing a Shane Mosley is a last-minute tip that Manny Pacquiao would do well to follow.
LAS VEGAS—Oscar De La Hoya, handsome in a black-and-white hero’s get-up, glowed pinkish with a facial make-up Wednesday upon entering the MGM Grand, site of his dream fight against Philippine pride Manny Pacquiao.
MANILA, Philippines—Oscar De La Hoya may indeed look older than a wasted race horse, if you asked trainer Freddie Roach.
MANILA, Philippines—What would Angelo Dundee do if he were in Freddie Roach’s place preparing Manny Pacquiao for the biggest fight of his career?
The first thing to determine about Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista is whether he made it to the MGM Grand for his defining comeback fight on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
MANILA, Philippines—Not content with a tested win-win storm, they tried to whip up a tornado in Manny Pacquiao as he prepares to fight legendary Oscar De La Hoya on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas.
Philip Juico, a tested hard worker who wants credit where it’s due, protested vehemently when informed about the launching of the national sports institute on Dec. 10 at the Philsports in Pasig City.
A couple of questions now beg for instant answers after Manny Pacquiao, sluggish and an easy target in a previous sparring session, recovered his old fire and was next branded Devil Wind by one avid admirer.
MANILA, Philippines—Not so welcome news from Big Bear City, California, was this one that says Oscar de la Hoya has rediscovered he’s a natural welterweight, 147 pounds, the stipulated limit for his monumental clash with Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao.
When president Jose Sulaiman of the World Boxing Council grows old enough, he would do well to enroll in the Manny Pacquiao School of Noble Moves.
MANILA, Philippines—Did they have to hit and pummel Manny Pacquiao, like to a bull speared and bloodied by the horse-riding picador, ahead of his Dec. 6 Dream Match with Oscar De La Hoya?
Who would ever think that Manny Pacquiao, caught in the thick of preparations for the biggest fight of his life, would still find time to call the Philippines in the middle of the night to assure he would take care of two unknown and unproven boxers who have been stalled in the US?
After his second world title defense on Sunday, Nonito Donaire has remained stuck in the world boxing bus depot waiting for a trip to full stardom.
MANILA, Philippines—One glimpse at the African foe of world flyweight boxing champ Nonito Donaire in Las Vegas on Sunday and the anxious Pinoy fight fan swoons in relief.
It’s easy to believe that a major upheaval will hit Las Vegas on Dec. 6, based on the pronouncements of matchmaker cum laude Bob Arum.
Sugar Ray Leonard, not one to pull his punches, slammed it hard in issuing a vital warning to Manny Pacquiao. Leonard put it bluntly and told Pacquiao he won’t stand a chance against Oscar De La Hoya if he forgets his shield, no matter how flimsy, in the dugout.
MANILA, Philippines—Was there a dirtier blow than the phantom punch thrown from the back of the victim and which floored the close-in aide of boxing superhero Manny Pacquiao on Monday?
They obviously did not know enough about the man so they shrieked: What made him an authority on boxing?
Just like the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya Dream Match on Dec. 6, it had the solid promise of a prizefight classic.
MANILA, Philippines—Former Senator Ramon Revilla had a golden vision while recovering at the Ambassador’s Suite of the St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City.
Something strangely dumb is happening to Freddie Roach and he must be led back to the boxing ring corner where he effectively belongs.
Mayor Edward Hagedorn, a college tough guy, is so successful at running Puerto Princesa City there may be no other choice for aspirant leaders but to ask the guy how he does it.
MANILA, Philippines—Gerry Peñalosa says he sees a Manny Pacquiao victory on points over the bigger Oscar De La Hoya in their fight in Las Vegas on Dec. 6.
MANILA, Philippines—Was he in pajamas—“Naka pang-tulog ba?”—the shortish, peppery boxing scholar wondered out loud.
The success story of the year in Philippine sports was that one about how they tried to hold an advance funeral for the first World Ten Ball pool championship in Manila—and failed.
MANILA, Philippines—Jeers to the bluffers who wasted hefty sums in a bid to wreck the ongoing World Ten Ball championship at the PICC.
MANILA, Philippines—Efren “Bata” Reyes was doing the usual, playing pool around the Ermita area late Monday, but the billiards legend did not look his old cozy self.
MANILA, Philippines—What, sir, is the secret behind the mad, mad following of basketball in the Philippines?
MANILA, Philippines—You can’t help but be amused at Eric Buhain, the dusky, bubbly chair of the Games and Amusements Board.
There’s this urgent request for a picture of the typical Filipino sports-politician.
MANILA, Philippines—He has achieved several remarkable feats, but his latest move could make a world of difference for Butch Ramirez, former teacher and basketball coach.
MANILA, Philippines—They’re trying to bully and push Manny Pacquiao against the ropes ahead of his monumental match against Oscar De La Hoya, thus making it incumbent upon self-respecting Filipinos to come to the side of the national sports treasure.
MANILA, Philippines—Here are two reports, a red-alert for concerned authorities, including the President of the Philippines, who must act promptly before they get slammed, napping, by another boxing death.
MANILA, Philippines—Two-time trainer of the year Freddie Roach should get a special award as boxing salesman of the decade once they’re done counting the profits from the Dec. 6 bout between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya.
The fire in Oscar De La Hoya’s desire to beat Manny Pacquiao could be aptly spelled in two words: Nacho Beristain.
MANILA, Philippines—Don Jose Sulaiman did not specify whether it was an elephant or a rhinoceros which he saw in today’s Oscar De la Hoya.
Gretchen Abaniel of the Philippines defends her Women’s International Boxing Association (Wiba) Inter-Continental minimumweight crown against Tukta Sor Ratana, the No. 1 contender from Thailand, on Saturday at the Puerto Princesa Coliseum.
MANILA, Philippines—Plain fans can’t be blamed for suspecting that it’s no longer a plain basketball match the UAAP will be hosting at the Araneta Coliseum Saturday.
MANILA, Philippines—There was one winning solution to the problems crippling Philippine sports but this was rudely overrun by political events following the change in administration.
MANILA, Philippines—Freddie Roach punched hard and scored when he swore that Manny Pacquiao, though smaller, will be stronger and faster than the taller Oscar De La Hoya.
No contest and no need to dig into prizefight records, either. Manny Pacquiao on Friday scored his biggest, quickest off-ring knockout when he formally agreed to fight the fight of the decade against a bigger, richer, glossier Oscar de la Hoya.
MANILA, Philippines—Not to worry, folks, if we are now left watching the Blame Olympics featuring national sports leaders fresh from their anomalous excursion to Beijing.
MANILA, Philippines—Let’s all salute Cuba, which did not land a single gold medal in boxing, but which offered no excuses for failing to win in the Olympic discipline that it used to dominate.
BEIJING — This is just a big mask, everything here is put-on, mostly make-believe, the farewell warning started.
BEIJING—What they should do the moment Michael Phelps returns home and gets some rest is give the guy a complete physical.
BEIJING—The way the RP Olympic contingent was peddled to an excited public, the elusive first gold medal could be only one lucky text message away.
BEIJING — Hello world, this is also the Smile Olympics where you get the finest toothpaste-ad grin from all medal winners.
BEIJING—They flew here to look for the best and brightest athletes but, after three dismal Philippine failures—in shooting, weightlifting and swimming—members of the Filipino media were caught wondering who’s the dumbest among the early Filipino losers.
BEIJING—US President George W. Bush, who cheered from the sidelines here Sunday, did not notice it but there was one problem with the USA Olympic basketball team.
MANILA, Philippines—They can say everything they want to say about Beijing and its government but, contrary to suspicion, it won’t be a hide-and-seek Olympics China will be hosting starting Friday.
MANILA, Philippines—This is not about Beijing and the Olympic Games, set to dazzle and burst in splendor right in the Chinese capital on Friday.
MANILA, Philippines—Don’t be surprised if, in one of your trips to Cebu City, you chance upon sportsman Tony Aldeguer and notice a circle of faint light over his handsome head.
MANILA, Philippines—They all loved to say of Alex John Banal that the celebrated young boxer would be the immediate heir to the country’s boxing superhero Manny Pacquiao.
MANILA, Philippines—So what’s extra golden, what’s so special and strictly secret about AJ Banal who goes for a piece of the world super flyweight boxing crown in Cebu City on Saturday?
MANILA, Philippines—Last sighted, “Iron Mike” Tyson, with a dwindled hairdo, sat with a female companion at ringside to watch Manny Pacquiao’s demolition of a gloved statue by the name of David Diaz in Las Vegas.
MANILA, Philippines—PBA superstar James Yap may have scored a national sprints record with that dash for dear life during a PBA game last week.
MANILA, Philippines—PBA millionaire superstar James Yap should expect a call from Go Teng Kok, president of the national track and field association, anytime soon.
MANILA, Philippines—You must be wondering what I’m doing here. I am back after having made that emotional farewell a couple of months back.
MANILA, Philippines—Was it my last column, the one that appeared here on Monday?
MANILA, Philippines—"Young loves are born in summer." Stop, look and listen. Heed that romantic warning in this hot-and-rainy season of old and young love.
MANILA, Philippines—There’s an ever-lengthening line, unmistakable, that could again land the Philippines in international record books.
MANILA, Philippines—It’s not an ordinary setback, the scrapping of world flyweight boxing champion Nonito Donaire’s title defense in Dubai, so authorities should make sure there would be no repeat of the bum deal.
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines' failures in two major international sporting ventures have been wrongly charged to him, so claimed tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan who has sent the following disclaimer.
MANILA, Philippines—It was not exactly a case of the tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan performing a King Midas in reverse.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—He smashed, bloodied and knocked down his opponent three times while fighting with an injured hand and a bad foot. But Manny Pacquiao emerged empty-handed after his gallant crown quest against Mexican double world champion Manuel Marquez was ruled a split draw here Saturday night (Sunday in Manila).
MANILA, Philippines—Contrary to what people in our respective neighborhoods had been warned, there was no fearsome threat of a boxing invasion from the world Sunday.
NOW THAT HE'S THE ONLY BOXER left to go for the gold, Harry Taña-mor has a bigger chance of landing a medal.
One tragic tale for our failed amateur boxing program has the generous tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan as reluctant hero and leading man.
MANILA, Philippines—Did I ask for a probe of the March 16 WBC super featherweight championship fight in Las Vegas?
MANILA, Philippines—Did I ask for a probe of the March 16 WBC super featherweight championship fight in Las Vegas?
MANILA, Philippines—Manny Pacquiao, who returns Monday from a successful crown quest in the United States, will not like this but it has got to be honestly said, anyway.
MANILA, Philippines—There may never be another fight like Sunday’s Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao world 130-lb boxing championship in Las Vegas for a long, long time.
MANILA, Philippines—They have covered everything—and he means everything, proudly claims Freddie Roach, Manny Pacquiao’s famous American trainer.
CEBU CITY, Philippines—There’s not a single visible fan in this boiling boxing capital who’d dare bet against Manny Pacquiao in his quest for the world super featherweight boxing crown against Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez on Sunday.
MANILA, Philippines -- Please mark this line 10 days before Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines clashes for the second time with Mexico’s Juan Marquez.
MANILA, Philippines -- After flying home not very safely by Northwest, the balikbayan declared he was lucky to be back alive.
MANILA, Philippines -- Will they come up with a most memorable shot, a truly outstanding hero in the current PBA Finals?
MANILA, Philippines -- Here's heartwarming info for countless avid fans who die to hear great news about Manny Pacquiao.
What has become clear is that Manny Pacquiao’s next big outing against Juan Manuel Marquez won’t be easy as Las Vegas oddsmakers have made it appear.
If there ever was a semblance of a national sports development program, it was mostly to each his own, decided and greatly influenced by the whims of dumb, self-serving decision-makers. There was no systematized, centralized sports development program.
MANILA, Philippines -- When former World Pool champ Alex Pagulayan wrote a full-length letter to defend his ouster by the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) from the Guinness Asian 9-Ball Tour, this columnist hosted him by printing his side.
MANILA, Philippines -- The more you read reports on Manny Pacquiao’s next big fight, the more you are convinced our superhero is no longer going to Las Vegas for a boxing bout.
MANILA, Philippines -- You think you have heard enough about the Manny Pacquiao magic, how a mere mention of his name would open impossible doors that had been shut for ages?
BANGKOK -- They call this period of the year winter in Thailand, but that’s not easy to buy.
BANGKOK -- The big bout, a leading candidate for fight of the tournament which could go either way, has escalated into a personal battle between the two combatants, Filipino Joan Tipon and Thailand’s Worapoj Petchkoom.
Alarmed by the failed bids of four Filipino boxers here, Philippine Sports Commission chair Butch Ramirez Tuesday vowed to take immediate measures to stop the anomalous practice of sending aging, recycled losers to major international tournaments like the current Olympic qualifier.
BANGKOK -- Olympian Violito Payla, winner of the flyweight gold in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, fought a dumb fight here on Saturday.
MANILA, Philippines -- You, most probably, are not a horse racing buff, so you haven’t heard of Mr. George Stribling.
MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Basketball Association is very ill and the least it could do is avoid picking a grave digger for its next commissioner.
The first to complain about being shortchanged by SkyCable were local fans of the Los Angeles Lakers. So far, there has been no advice or explanation from the popular cable provider on what’s going on.
MANILA, Philippines -- At 29 and after nearly 50 professional fights, some of them terrible and very bloody, Manny Pacquiao is now undoubtedly a grandmaster.
MANILA, Philippines -- At its purest, the annual procession for the Black Nazarene of Quiapo is a dance, performed by a raging sea of barefoot male devotees that march in solemn cadence --indayog, indayog -- as they pull the holy image around the streets of the old district.
MANILA, Philippines -- The biggest story of the period exploded even before the New Year turned a week old, when America took what sick saints of the status quo could call a desperation shot.
For a change, something beautiful is happening in our overly politicized national sports landscape.
MANILA, Philippines -- Julian Malonso, former president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, is coming out with a book, “Memoirs,” a celebration of the many years he has dedicated to Philippine sports.
Jesus, the carpenter's son, loves athletes and poor game fans so much he recently thought of checking what's wrong with Philippine sports.
MANILA, Philippines—There are two reasons why the Philippine Basketball Association is coming up with a two-game package tomorrow, Christmas Day.
(FOULED UP: Officials of the NBN-4 coverage team packed up for home Sunday unsure if they would be able to cover the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Laos.
NAKHON RATCHASIMA--There was grating regret among NBN-4 television crewmen when they learned a few minutes late that mountain bike's Jovy Barba had landed RP's first gold in the 24th Southeast Asian Games.
NAKHON RATCHASIMA--Want a bit of spicy news about the shaky, sinking Philippine sports mission to this placid, charming capital?
NAKHON RATCHASIMA -- “Stand, stand? You rike stand?” pleaded Suephot, our designated team driver, while pounding hard on the front-seat cushion of the van outside the main stadium hours before the opening ceremonies for the 24th Southeast Asian Games Thursday.
MANILA, Philippines -- Our shooters continued to fire at their feet after nearly a full week of action Monday in the 24th Southeast Asian Games, but Filipino sports scribes were having their hands full shooting saucy dispatches.
MANILA, Philippines -- One week before the Philippine bowling team’s scheduled departure for the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, Steve Hontiveros, president of the Philippine Bowling Congress, informed Markwin Tee and Joonee Gatchalian that they were being removed from the national squad.
MANILA, Philippines -- Two Filipino boxers figure in bouts on Sunday which, needless to say, they cannot afford to lose.
MANILA, Philippines -- It requires extraordinary talent, but it pays to stay very close to the President of the Philippines whenever there’s a courtesy call in Malacañang.
MANILA, Philippines -- It’s wrong, incorrect, corrupt, but all the Philippines could do is roll with the punches now that it has dropped the overall championship even before the 24th Southeast Asian Games could fire off in Thailand.
MANILA, Philippines -- Until the rat crept in to gnaw at his nerves and wreck his composure, youthful star Roberto Gomez was doing it like the true Superman of world pool.
This Pinoy Superman, after all, did not have nerves of steel. That, in a nutshell, sums up the national frustration stirred by the failure of our top remaining bet for the World Pool Championship crown at the Araneta Coliseum on Sunday.
MANILA, Philippines -- He wields his jeweled cue stick like a pauper, compared to eminent members of the cast, but the Crown Prince of Brunei was an early winner in the current World Pool Championship.
MANILA, Philippines -- It’s easy to say nice things about boxer Harry Tañamor, who dared break away from a sleepy, losing system to make it to his third Olympics.
MANILA, Philippines -- Whether he liked it or not, Bert Batawang has left behind some of his best punches -- a good part of him -- at the Wild Card gym after nearly four months of forced exile that saw him through the hardest, most trying moments in his 17-year struggle as a professional boxer.
MANILA, Philippines -- You’re sure you know this man the boxing world fondly calls Freddie Roach?
LOS ANGELES -- Mexico’s Marco Antonio Barrera should’ve put up a fighting final stand instead of dance that cutesy waltz to the sunset last Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
LAS VEGAS -- The great Sugar Ray Leonard said he would not be surprised if Manny Pacquiao, whom he admires, wins inside six rounds.
LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao, a merciless lefty, knows a great right hand when he sees one.
LOS ANGELES -- Veteran actor Eddie Gutierrez, trim, tall and handsome in a leather jacket, visited the Wild Card gym on Friday for Manny Pacquiao’s training and had some female heads turning.
LOS ANGELES -- Nothing wrong if you had to walk a mile for a Camel, explained an old lung cancer commercial.
LOS ANGELES -- He looked perfectly fine, ready to rumble. But it did not come as a surprise when Manny Pacquiao, who slept practically through the entire Manila-LAX flight Saturday, announced he would take to the road Sunday.
LOS ANGELES--The boxing world wants an answer to this pressing puzzle on the happy state of boxing in the Philippines.
LOS ANGELES -- Going by established pre-fight facts -- if not by the tale of the tape --make believe, like love, will have to reign in order for Marco Antonio Barrera to corner enough bets in the Will to Win card in Las Vegas on Oct. 6.
LOS ANGELES -- They’re getting ready and there’s the tinkle of silverware, the clinking of wine glasses traveling all the way from dear old Manila to the clogged corridor of the Wild Card gym here.
The other day at Wild Card, a middle-aged fixture, a leathery Mex with a drum of a beer belly, started mumbling something interesting about the Marco Antonio Barrera-Manny Pacquiao rematch.
LOS ANGELES -- This factual report is for Manny Pacquiao, the most famous Filipino boxer of our time.
LOS ANGELES -- It would be terribly unwise of Marco Antonio Barrera to kill himself preparing for a two-fisted roller coaster in his next fight.
LOS ANGELES -- He did not look exactly like The Accused. The former Manila sportswriter, who adversaries inside Team Pacquiao here had grimly labeled the Pest, was not an itchy bug. Neither was he a distant cousin to a wet fly or a grimy termite.
Two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) cops were called into Pacquiao’s gated Pallazzo apartment here Sunday afternoon. There was no visible trouble. But the presence of the police confirmed that peace, or whatever little remained of it, has been shattered in Pacquiao’s favorite nest.
LOS ANGELES -- If you ask Brian Viloria what he’s up to, you’d probably get a reply from Mark Twain.
LOS ANGELES -- It gets lonelier everyday as they wait for Manny Pacquiao to return and complete his training here. But, before everything, there are two distress calls that must immediately reach home.
LOS ANGELES -- The problem with Manny Pacquiao, as trainer Freddie Roach has reluctantly admitted, is that he tends to be too cute.
LOS ANGELES -- Let’s try and call this petty quiz, Learning from Mistakes. OK, between Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista and the San Miguel-RP national basketball team, whose defeat proved more devastating to the Filipino sports lover?
LOS ANGELES -- Trust what Freddie Roach had to claim about a missing component in Team Pacquiao. The two-time Trainer of the Year said there would be no breakdown, no matter what, despite the absence of conditioning guru Justin Fortune.
Vice Gov. Manny Piñol of North Cotabato had never hoped to have any of his young, talented fighters immediately featured in a big Las Vegas card. But Manny Pacquiao has seen to it that two of Piñol’s top boxers will fight in the undercard of the Pacquiao-Barrera rematch.
LOS ANGELES -- His bags were packed, Freddie Roach was ready to go but, cornered, the celebrated trainer reluctantly bared the exclusive plot on how Manny Pacquiao could again stop Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera in their scheduled rematch in Las Vegas.
LOS ANGELES -- They had prayed for something bouncier, alive. Not exactly a marching tune but, please, not another tearful dirge.
MANILA, Philippines -- Bob Guerrero, premier pool commentator, asked if Alex Pagulayan had been properly warned about his conduct before he was scratched out of the Guinness Pool Tour.
MANILA, Philippines -- They suffered similar fates -- they lost in world title bids -- but Filipino Rodel Mayol and Mexican icon Erik Morales wore contrasting masks of defeat inside the ring in Chicago Sunday.
MANILA, Philippines -- You really want to know why the Philippine national basketball team failed the Olympic entrance test?
MANILA, Philippines -- There’s always a thrill in seeing Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan sizzle and roar in big international pool tournaments.
MANILA, Philippines -- Injuries were “healing fast” in the RP national basketball team and there’s every reason to believe the squad would be shipshape when it travels today for its monumental mission in Japan.
ONLY a few victory balloons trickled tired from the roof area, but PBA commissioner Noli Eala could not conceal his glee.
MANILA, Philippines -- Now that they have swept the floor of the victory debris, it’s time to tell the truth about the triumphant Philippine national basketball team.
MANILA, Philippines -- He must’ve heard taunts of “Cleveland, Cleveland” after the fancied San Miguel Beer team sputtered and fell down 0-2 in the PBA Fiesta Conference semifinal series.
MANILA, Philippines -- Reporting from the scene, Bob Arum claimed Manny Pacquiao figured splendidly in a case deposition earlier this month.
Chances are you never met him. Benjie Angeles would drop by their place in Pasig City, said his mother, and would be gone the next moment. But he was more akin to a firefly because, based on what we had gathered, he never failed to lend brightness to places he visited.
MANILA, Philippines -- The Basketball Association of the Philippines stepped out of bounds and was promptly punished by the international basketball federation (FIBA) last week.
MANILA, Philippines -- Somebody please check the Hollywood files in Los Angeles for the movie script from where Bob Arum borrowed the theme of Manny Pacquiao’s next fight.
MANILA, Philippines -- Manny Pacquiao’s scheduled conquest of New York City failed to fully materialize after younger brother Bobby was knocked out Sunday at the historic Madison Square Garden.
MANILA, Philippines -- Now it’s our turn to ask what’s taking the NBA Finals too long to start.
MANILA, Philippines -- In fairness to Manny Pacquiao, there were actually a few out there who had honestly wanted him to win in the last elections.
MANILA, Philippines -- It’s a pity that Manny Pacquiao never got to know this guy, who could have helped and made a world of difference in the career of our boxing super hero.
MANILA, Philippines -- When was the last time you saw the Philippine national basketball team play?
MANILA, Philippines -- Now that it’s finally over, Manny Pacquiao’s fight at the polls is bound to go down as the most brutal, most expensive in his great career.
MANILA, Philippines -- Correction please, it was not a knockout that Manny Pacquiao had suffered at the polls.
MANILA, Philippines—Everybody who cared swore it was not the right fight for him.
MANILA, Philippines -- Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista has only his big, hungry-boy’s heart to thank for winning his last fight in Las Vegas.
MANILA, Philippines -- The Golden Boy came, saw but he did not conquer. Floyd Mayweather Jr. came, saw what was coming, and succeeded with a historic escape.
MANILA, Philippines -- The agitation, unfurled in a blazing red banner at center stage, read like a protest against biased, one-sided officiating. No, it was not a silly ballgame, but the result was utterly foul, rotten.
MANILA, Philippines -- Nobody had dared predict whether the reign of former swimming star Eric Buhain would be the finest or the dirtiest in the history of the graft-ridden Games and Amusements Board (GAB).
MANILA, Philippines -- The Games and Amusements Board wasted no time, jumped up, and ordered an immediate all-out investigation.
MANILA, Philippines -- Self-styled sportsmen who promoted Donnie Nietes’ defense of his World Boxing Organization Asia Pacific 105-lb crown should congratulate themselves.
MANILA, Philippines -- Senator Lito Lapid and The Philippine Basketball Association, both armed to the teeth, are going for a knockout.
MANILA, Philippines -- The foe, a mediocre Mexican with very feeble knees, failed to bring out the best in Manny Pacquiao.
MANILA, Philippines -- Nobody does it better than the great Bob Arum when it comes to carving out a prizefight masterpiece.
MANILA, Philippines -- It’s obvious Bob Arum did not bother to take a second look and check.
