2nd Trim Check
Bleacher Talk
Sept. 20, 2009
2nd Trim Check
For us fans of Pinoy Boxing, developments over the past month surely brought smiles to our faces.
We watched Donnie Nietes defend his WBO world minimumweight championship in Mexico, beating Manuel Vargas by split decision. Before this, “Marvelous” Marvin Sonsona pulled a pleasant surprise when he won the WBO super flyweight championship from Jose “Carita” Lopez in Canada. Brian Viloria returned to his hometown of Hawaii to defend his IBF world flyweight championship, defeating Jesus Iribe by unanimous decision. The other good news were AJ Banal winning in in Hawaii and Z Gorres winning in the undercard of the Nietes-Vargas event in Mexico. And the best news out of Pinoy Boxing is that Manny Pacquiao has arrived from the U.S. and is due to start training for his November 14 fight with Miguel Cotto. He heads north to Baguio tomorrow to formally kick off his training. But not all was good news. Rodel Mayol lost in his fourth attempt to win a world championship.
Although this group of boxers aren’t exactly as popular as Manny Pacquiao, they’ve proven that the Philippines is more than just a Pacman show. Along with Nonito Donaire Jr., they’ve made an impression in the international boxing scene and could be doing so for a long time. An indicator how far they’ve gone in boxing is to take another look at rankings of The Ring magazine. We last wrote about their ratings at the start of 2009 when we scanned the horizon for this year’s news makers. Those ranked by Ring in their respective divisions were Pacquiao, Donaire, Gerry Peñalosa, Florante Condes, Nietes, Gorres and Bert Batawang.
So where exactly are the Pinoy boxers making waves? At the top of the Pound-for-Pound (P4P) rankings of The Ring magazine is the Pacman himself. Juan Manuel Marquez is at #2, and today’s fight between Marquez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will surely shake up the P4P rankings, regardless of who wins. Nonito Donaire Jr. is ranked # 7 in the P4P list after winning the WBA interim super flyweight championship.
Ironically, Nietes is ranked “only” # 7 in the 105-pound division. Fellow ALA Boy Milan Melindo is ranked higher at #6 even if he doesn’t own any world title. Florante Condes is at # 8, but I’m not sure if he still deserves to be there. In the 108-pound light flyweight division, Brian Viloria is ranked # 1 behind champion Ivan Calderon. Mayol is ranked #8, while Juanito Rubillar is at a generous #9. Donaire is #9 in the super flyweight division (115 pounds) while brand new champ Sonsona debuts at #10. The guy at the top is a familiar name: Vic Darchinyan.
The boxers missing from the rankings at the start of the year are Gorres, Batawang and Peñalosa. We understand why Batawang and Peñalosa are no longer there as they’re very much into the sunset of their colourful careers, but Gerry is still looking for one last big fight before calling it a day. On the other hand, the move of Gorres to the 118-pound weight class may have an influence why he’s no longer in the rankings. It’s a top heavy list of boxers and Z will surely have to earn his way up the ranks by being more active and winning more fights.
Honorable mention will be the likes of Banal, Michael Domingo and Mark Jason Melligen. We also have Boom Boom Bautista seeing action next month after a long lay-off. These boxers may not make it to the Ring magazine ratings really soon, but for Banal and Melligen, the slow road to the top looks good. I’m afraid I can’t say the same for Domingo and Boom Boom until they get the right breaks and opportunities.
Over-all, we must admit that we’ve had a fairly good year so far. With a new world champ in Sonsona and our world champions (Donnie, Donaire and Viloria) defending their titles successfully, let’s now hope that this rubs off on the rest of Philippine Boxing. Moreover, November 15 (14 in the U.S.) will be an icing on the cake to all this success.
What else can we ask for? We’ve got a lot for which to be thankful and a lot of opportunities opening up for the many other young prospects out there. From the Philippines to the world it will be from now on, and forever.
oOo
Time-out: Happy birthday to Steve Jude Fantillo! >>> You can reach me at bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
Sept. 20, 2009
2nd Trim Check
For us fans of Pinoy Boxing, developments over the past month surely brought smiles to our faces.
We watched Donnie Nietes defend his WBO world minimumweight championship in Mexico, beating Manuel Vargas by split decision. Before this, “Marvelous” Marvin Sonsona pulled a pleasant surprise when he won the WBO super flyweight championship from Jose “Carita” Lopez in Canada. Brian Viloria returned to his hometown of Hawaii to defend his IBF world flyweight championship, defeating Jesus Iribe by unanimous decision. The other good news were AJ Banal winning in in Hawaii and Z Gorres winning in the undercard of the Nietes-Vargas event in Mexico. And the best news out of Pinoy Boxing is that Manny Pacquiao has arrived from the U.S. and is due to start training for his November 14 fight with Miguel Cotto. He heads north to Baguio tomorrow to formally kick off his training. But not all was good news. Rodel Mayol lost in his fourth attempt to win a world championship.
Although this group of boxers aren’t exactly as popular as Manny Pacquiao, they’ve proven that the Philippines is more than just a Pacman show. Along with Nonito Donaire Jr., they’ve made an impression in the international boxing scene and could be doing so for a long time. An indicator how far they’ve gone in boxing is to take another look at rankings of The Ring magazine. We last wrote about their ratings at the start of 2009 when we scanned the horizon for this year’s news makers. Those ranked by Ring in their respective divisions were Pacquiao, Donaire, Gerry Peñalosa, Florante Condes, Nietes, Gorres and Bert Batawang.
So where exactly are the Pinoy boxers making waves? At the top of the Pound-for-Pound (P4P) rankings of The Ring magazine is the Pacman himself. Juan Manuel Marquez is at #2, and today’s fight between Marquez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will surely shake up the P4P rankings, regardless of who wins. Nonito Donaire Jr. is ranked # 7 in the P4P list after winning the WBA interim super flyweight championship.
Ironically, Nietes is ranked “only” # 7 in the 105-pound division. Fellow ALA Boy Milan Melindo is ranked higher at #6 even if he doesn’t own any world title. Florante Condes is at # 8, but I’m not sure if he still deserves to be there. In the 108-pound light flyweight division, Brian Viloria is ranked # 1 behind champion Ivan Calderon. Mayol is ranked #8, while Juanito Rubillar is at a generous #9. Donaire is #9 in the super flyweight division (115 pounds) while brand new champ Sonsona debuts at #10. The guy at the top is a familiar name: Vic Darchinyan.
The boxers missing from the rankings at the start of the year are Gorres, Batawang and Peñalosa. We understand why Batawang and Peñalosa are no longer there as they’re very much into the sunset of their colourful careers, but Gerry is still looking for one last big fight before calling it a day. On the other hand, the move of Gorres to the 118-pound weight class may have an influence why he’s no longer in the rankings. It’s a top heavy list of boxers and Z will surely have to earn his way up the ranks by being more active and winning more fights.
Honorable mention will be the likes of Banal, Michael Domingo and Mark Jason Melligen. We also have Boom Boom Bautista seeing action next month after a long lay-off. These boxers may not make it to the Ring magazine ratings really soon, but for Banal and Melligen, the slow road to the top looks good. I’m afraid I can’t say the same for Domingo and Boom Boom until they get the right breaks and opportunities.
Over-all, we must admit that we’ve had a fairly good year so far. With a new world champ in Sonsona and our world champions (Donnie, Donaire and Viloria) defending their titles successfully, let’s now hope that this rubs off on the rest of Philippine Boxing. Moreover, November 15 (14 in the U.S.) will be an icing on the cake to all this success.
What else can we ask for? We’ve got a lot for which to be thankful and a lot of opportunities opening up for the many other young prospects out there. From the Philippines to the world it will be from now on, and forever.
oOo
Time-out: Happy birthday to Steve Jude Fantillo! >>> You can reach me at bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
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