MANILA, Philippines — The National and Women’s Basketball League will get things going with one-on-one matches in Luzon this weekend at Bren Z. Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.
The men’s will feature three matchups while the women’s will have five games in the special event.
In an unconventional twist, the league decided to categorize the games in both divisions by weight such as featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.
Former Barangay Ginebra guard Teytey Teodoro will headline the men’s games as he faces Arnaud Noah in a heavyweight game. Other men’s matches are Christopher Lagrama versus Mark Tamayo (featherweight) and Raymart Amil against Marvin Baracael (welterweight).
In the women’s side, Allana Lim goes up against Snow Penaranda (light heavyweight), Jhenn Chrystelle Angeles faces Angelica De Austria (lightweight), Sthefanie Ventura clashes with Nicole Cancio (welterweight) while Jo Razalo takes Girly Villaflores (heavyweight), and Jolina Go battles Nicole Delos Reyes (featherweight).
WNBL 1v1 commissioner Haydee Ong believes classifying the games by weight creates fair play.
“The weight is a must so that it (the games) won’t be disadvantageous to the athletes participating,” said Ong, the former Philippine women’s team coach and current mentor of the University of Santo Tomas Lady Tigers.
NBL 1v1 commissioner Jerry Codinera expects to see entertaining games.
“So it’s for you to find a way to beat (your opponent). Even though your opponent is taller but he is lighter. It’s a challenge in a way that you can be beaten by the small guys who have the same weight as yours,” said the PBA great.
“There’s a lot of pros and cons in the game, so it’s really exciting. It’s gonna be a battle of wits.”
The NBL 1v1 will feature three rounds of five minutes per game with no timeouts. In between rounds, there will be a two-minute interval in the race-to-30 contest.
The WNBL meanwhile, will have one timeout per round, although the first four minutes will be running time.
Championship belts will be given to all the winners per weight division.