Boxing dreams begin on a weekend

Covering sports brings you to a multitude of interesting places. You usually start with a regular beat like a basketball league or a sport that the senior scribes have already been through. You develop skills and contacts that make you an insider. When you become better at covering it, you get a chance to go abroad and witness events that you once only dreamed of.

You have your picture taken at emblematic venues. If you’re lucky, you get to stand beside willing sports stars and you have a photo of that moment to display at home or the office or even in Facebook.

But those special events rarely happen, unless you’re a regular member of the Manny Pacquiao press corps and learn to live in Baguio, Los Angeles or Las Vegas. After your overseas assignment, you come back down to earth and return to your regular sports beats, reconnect with your beginnings and start finding new stories and scores to chronicle.

It’s a long road from Las Vegas to Rosario, Cavite, but here I am on a Saturday night with the In This Corner brigade as we continue our television search for new Filipino boxing champions. Fight fans in this fishing town as well as our regular band of officials, promoters and managers want to talk about who really won the Pacquiao-Marquez battle. Every boxing fan has an opinion and an interesting way of using hands and facial expressions to make a point.

On this humid night, a wide-eyed troop of boxers are gathered for a California-type boxing card of short, quick fights. There are only two 10-rounders but there is a handful of six-and four-rounders that thrill the crowd with blistering action and quick knockdowns. Short fights are delightful because there’s no time for lengthy warmups or for detailed strategies. The minute the bell rings, the warriors snap into action.

Interestingly, most of the fighters records show more defeats than wins and it hits you that you’re back in boxing’s very gut. There is lean and youthful Zoren Pama, who can’t seem to shake off draws and setbacks. He loses another fight to Karlo Maguinto despite scoring a lightning-quick knockdown in the first half minute of a six-round battle. Maguinto pummels Pama and wins via TKO when the referee declares that Pama has had enough.

Then, there’s pint-sized Ranel del Castillo, who punishes Benjie Bartolome and scores a thundering TKO in the fifth round. The junior flyweight bout is a fan’s treat as two 5-foot-1 bangers throw kitchen sinks at each other. The crowd can identify with the duo’s “Filipino” size. Del Castillo shows promise but like the rest of the crowd pleasers on this night, he is at best a diamond in the rough with a long way to go.

Boxing dreams begin or crash in these weekend fight cards in basketball courts or town centers around the country. Whether the brave warriors make it to Las Vegas or not is another story. For now, earning money for food on the table is more than enough for them. Las Vegas can wait.