Twin wins in Dubai, heartbreak in Tokyo

THERE was only one stoppage out of the two promised to over-excited Filipino fans in Dubai, but that doesn’t mean the job came half-done.

The brothers Pagara, Albert and Jason, winning in contrasting fashions, have helped firm up a major boxing card in California, inaugural presentation of ALA Promotions in the United States, this October.

The Pagaras were pitted against Mexican foes in Duel in Dubai 2 on Friday, highly anticipated bouts which, going by the media play-up, they could not afford to lose.

* * *

The idea was to showcase their preparedness for major international challenge.

It was, however, a no-contest in the IBF Intercontinental super bantamweight championship as defending titlist Albert Pagara, dubbed “The Prince,” dumped a shaky, ill-prepared Jesus Rios of Mexico in less than one round.

As it would turn out, Rios, who came in two pounds overweight and had to wear 10-ounce gloves as penalty, had no business reporting for the championship.

* * *

Through no fault of his own, the unbeaten Pagara failed to deliver the thrilling contest expected by the raucous predominantly Filipino crowd in Dubai.

Jason, elder of the fighting Pagaras, outpointed another Mexican, Ramiro Alcaraz, in a so-so eight-round contest.

With the contrasting wins, Filipino fans can now look forward to a Pinoy Pride presentation by ALA International Promotions in California where, it goes without saying, discerning spectators cannot be expected to tolerate tasteless mismatches.

* * *

There indeed was evident pride despite the failure of a top-heavy well-prepared Philippine team to swing the staging of the 2019 World Cup of basketball.  China has been rewarded by the International Basketball Federation with the prestigious hosting.  There were unconfirmed reports the selection process by the Fiba Central Board in Tokyo went “into double overtime” on Friday.

Despite China’s vast edge in infrastructure, facilities, resources, not to mention size itself,  the Philippines mounted a bold bid anchored on love and passion for the game. The country also came up with was considered a superior audio-visual presentation.

One report said: “Tweeting from the heart, Filipino netizens on Friday pushed the hashtag #PUSO2019 to support the country’s bid to host the Fiba World Cup. Midway to the Fiba decision, the hash tag had already posted close to 200,000 tweets, making it the No. 1 trending topic worldwide.”

* * *

(PH BOYS IN FINALS: From avid baseball backer Michael Asuncion in Miami: “Our kids, a team of 12-year-old players, have joined the Word Baseball Federation (WBF) International tournament here. Surprisingly, they’ve outplayed the big-gun teams from Puerto Rico, USA and Mexico. Words are not enough to describe the crowd cheering the Philippine Pioneers. The tournament is scheduled Aug. 1 to 9. We are in the finals … yes, the finals!”)