All set for Pinoy Pride

Practically the entire staff of ALA Promotions, led by Michael Aldeguer’s two lovely and hardworking angels Lucille Ballori and Chelna Locaylocay, have flown in from Cebu to prepare for the staging of Pinoy Pride 30 “D-Day: Donnie and Donaire” at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City this Saturday.

In this international event, Balmori and Locaylocay will be looking after a total of 16 boxers, 10 coming from the ALA Gym and six from different parts of the world.

One of the six is Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire Jr., who arrived from the US last March 21 and will be up against former WBO Latino bantamweight champion William Prado of Brazil.

“The five others are opponents of ALA boxers, one of whom is a Japanese,” said Locaylocay. “Except for one, all are titled (fighters).”

All foreign fighters are already in Manila, and were presented to the media last Wednesday at Sequoia Hotel in Quezon City.

The local media also had the opportunity to evaluate them later in the afternoon during their workouts at the newly constructed ALA Gym in Balete Drive.

Earlier Tuesday, the doors of ALA Gym were also opened to local media for the Filipino boxers’ workouts.

“Pinoy Pride 30 will be the biggest, most spectacular ALA event so far. In addition to the longest reigning Filipino world champion Donnie Nietes and five-division world champion Donaire, it will feature the exciting ‘Prince’ Albert Pagara,” said Chelna.

British Anson Wainwright of Ring Magazine and Ring TV, who flew in from Cardiff, Wales, to present Nietes with a Ring belt, predicted Pagara will knock out his opponent Fofo Hernandez of Brazil, who is also a knockout artist.

Wainwright also foresees a win for Nietes and a highly successful comeback for Donaire.

However, one vision in Wainwright’s crystal ball that does not bode well for Filipinos is a Mayweather triumph over Pacquiao on May 2.

“I don’t see a knockout on May 2. I think Mayweather will be ahead of Pacquiao on points,” the writer said.

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Meanwhile, eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, who’s deep in training for his much-awaited fight of the century with Foyd Mayweather Jr., will have his own press conference right here in Manila via a phone patch, also on Thursday.

The Manila conference will be hosted by Solar Entertainment, which has exclusive rights to the television coverage of the fight.

On this occasion, Solar’s Wilson Tieng will likely take the opportunity to announce that the most expensive fight, renamed “Battle for Greatness,” will be shown on free TV over three channels: GMA, ABS-CBN and TV5.