Is There More Than Just Manny?
I spent the day before yesterday watching recordings of old boxing matches with my beloved father-in-law. As you might imagine, the vast majority of the fights featured at least one Filipino pugilist.
Two fighters, both of whom are popular in the Philippines, were favorites of my father-in-law, but were little known to me.
Brian Viloria, I had read a bit about, but I had only seen him fight once before. We watched a DVD of his fight with Eric Ortiz, in which Viloria scored a 1st round K.O., winning the WBC light flyweight (108 lbs) championship belt. Viloria is fighting the Mexican Jose Antonio Aguirre, from whom Ortiz had won the belt, on 2/18, and you'd better believe that we'll be watching.
Roberto Vasquez, the WBA light-flyweight champion who KO'ed Aguirre last August, might be a better match for Viloria, but Vasquez is Panamanian, and you can't overstate the Filipino-Mexican rivalry when it comes to selling tickets and PPV's. Add in that Aguirre is managed by Erik "Manny broke my nose" Morales, and that Viloria is managed by Manny's trainer Freddie Roach, and the pot is stirred further.
Viloria looks to have good punching power for this low weight class, but I didn't see enough to be able to predict how he'll do. He is an American citizen (born in Hawaii), very charismatic, speaks wittily and well in a coupla languages, and will probably generate a lot of interest, so long as he continues to win. Viloria served as announcer for several of the "Solar Sports Network" fights that we watched, including the Filipino broadcasts of the HBO-promoted Manny Pacquiao fights, and he did as well as any fighter/announcer I've seen, with the exception of the charming George Foreman (who really should announce more).
The second of these Filipino phenomenons is the wonderfully named Jimrex Jaca. He is not in the class of Viloria, methinks, but he was very entertaining in his dismantling of the outclassed Geronimo Hernandez. Jaca has mostly fought bums thus far, losing his alphabet belt (OBPF super-bantam-weight) by KO to the definitely less-than-stellar Yasuo Kunimi (I've seen this guy fight, and my sister could take him). To make matters worse, he was KO'ed after not making the weight. Tsk, tsk.
In the era of Manny Pacquiao, boxing is more popular than ever in the RP. "Punching Meters" are springing up in shopping centers everywhere, which enable aspiring practitioners of "the sweet science" to assess how they measure up to their hero.
Neither of these guys will surpass Manny any time soon, but there will be no shortage of fans lining up to worship them should Manny's star fall.
Two fighters, both of whom are popular in the Philippines, were favorites of my father-in-law, but were little known to me.
Brian Viloria, I had read a bit about, but I had only seen him fight once before. We watched a DVD of his fight with Eric Ortiz, in which Viloria scored a 1st round K.O., winning the WBC light flyweight (108 lbs) championship belt. Viloria is fighting the Mexican Jose Antonio Aguirre, from whom Ortiz had won the belt, on 2/18, and you'd better believe that we'll be watching.
Roberto Vasquez, the WBA light-flyweight champion who KO'ed Aguirre last August, might be a better match for Viloria, but Vasquez is Panamanian, and you can't overstate the Filipino-Mexican rivalry when it comes to selling tickets and PPV's. Add in that Aguirre is managed by Erik "Manny broke my nose" Morales, and that Viloria is managed by Manny's trainer Freddie Roach, and the pot is stirred further.
Viloria looks to have good punching power for this low weight class, but I didn't see enough to be able to predict how he'll do. He is an American citizen (born in Hawaii), very charismatic, speaks wittily and well in a coupla languages, and will probably generate a lot of interest, so long as he continues to win. Viloria served as announcer for several of the "Solar Sports Network" fights that we watched, including the Filipino broadcasts of the HBO-promoted Manny Pacquiao fights, and he did as well as any fighter/announcer I've seen, with the exception of the charming George Foreman (who really should announce more).
The second of these Filipino phenomenons is the wonderfully named Jimrex Jaca. He is not in the class of Viloria, methinks, but he was very entertaining in his dismantling of the outclassed Geronimo Hernandez. Jaca has mostly fought bums thus far, losing his alphabet belt (OBPF super-bantam-weight) by KO to the definitely less-than-stellar Yasuo Kunimi (I've seen this guy fight, and my sister could take him). To make matters worse, he was KO'ed after not making the weight. Tsk, tsk.
In the era of Manny Pacquiao, boxing is more popular than ever in the RP. "Punching Meters" are springing up in shopping centers everywhere, which enable aspiring practitioners of "the sweet science" to assess how they measure up to their hero.
Neither of these guys will surpass Manny any time soon, but there will be no shortage of fans lining up to worship them should Manny's star fall.
posted by Paul at 3:09 AM
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