Lone defeat haunts Drian Francisco

It’s easy to make former WBA interim super flyweight champion Drian “Golden Fists” Francisco cry.
All one has to do is remind him of his loss to lightly rated Tepparith Singwancha of Thailand, who took the title away from him about two months ago. This was Drian’s first loss in a professional boxing career that also boasts 20 wins, a draw and 16 knockouts.
Last Wednesday, during the press conference hosted by Drian’s manager Elmer Anuran of Saved by the Bell Promotions at the Tiara Hotel in Makati, the upset to the Thai was inevitably mentioned.
Everybody wanted to hear an explanation straight from the horse’s mouth. The odds were heavily in his favor in that fight and a veteran scribe asked him what happened.
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Drian was quiet for a while. He bowed his head and when he lifted it up again, everybody was surprised to see that he was crying.
He never really answered the scribe’s question. When he spoke he said that he will never allow the same thing to happen again. In other words, he was telling everybody at the press conference that he will beat his opponent Mike Domingo of the ALA stable in Cebu in their 10-round encounter at the Makati Coliseum.
The highly regarded Domingo is another world class boxer who, at 32, holds a record of 42-15-3 with 23 knockouts.
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Last Friday night, Domingo’s record became 42-15-4, 23 KOs after he lost to Drian by unanimous decision.
As Anuran earlier pronounced, the winner of the match will be propelled to the world boxing stage. Drian, Elmer explained, is a late bloomer because he decided to finish college first before turning to boxing. The 28-year-old pug is a business administration graduate of San Sebastian College in Mindoro Occidental, his hometown.
I suppose Drian cried tears of joy that Friday night at the Makati Coliseum, with so many fans in the gallery cheering for him.
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If Manny V. Pangilinan had gone back to Manila as scheduled Monday morning, Sept. 19, Smart Gilas cagers Chris Lutz and Marcio Lassiter may never have been able to suit up for the Fiba Asia Men’s Championship in Wuhan, China.
That’s what scribe Nelson Beltran and PBA media bureau Willie Marcial told me from Wuhan.
They said the SBP president worked hands-on to plead the case of Lutz and Lassiter to Fiba International in Geneva, Switzerland.
“After the two Fil-Americans were cleared by Fiba International 9 a.m. of Monday, MVP could have taken his return flight to Manila already.
“But his intuition must have told him to stay, because he decided to rebook for the following day. True enough, 30 minutes before our quarterfinal game against Jordan that same day, MVP got word that Fiba-Asia secretary general Hagop Khagirian refused to honor the letter sent by Fiba’s Patrick Baumann clearing Lutz and Lassiter. The Philippines-Jordan game was scheduled at 3:30 p.m.,” Willie related.
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“It was MVP who had been communicating with Fiba head office to get clearance for the two cagers, and it was also MVP who kept calling Baumann after he was told that Khagirian refused to honor the Fiba clearance. With only a few minutes before the game, he stormed into the office of Hagop to confront him,” Nelson said.
All the Filipinos in Wuhan now regard MVP not just as a very wealthy businessman but as some kind of a national hero.
“He refused to leave Hagop’s office unless he got the clearance from the Fiba official. MVP showed him Baumann’s letter, explaining its content, which Hagop earlier said was ‘not clear’. He also showed his text communications from Baumann.”
Hagop finally gave in and allowed Lutz and Lassiter to play.
“MVP did it all,” said Willie.
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After a grueling Monday, MVP returned to Manila the following day. He was scheduled to fly back to Wuhan Saturday for the semifinal game against Jordan which unfortunately, we sorely lost.
We will be battling either Korea or China for third place, but whether we ultimately end up third or fourth, I hope MVP would not be too disappointed with the finish.
That’s still a big leap from our eighth place performance two years ago in Tianjin, China.