Christopher puts on his boxing gloves

MANILA, Philippines - At first, the missus was strongly against it. Gladys Reyes didn’t want to see dear hubby, Christopher Roxas, black and blue from all the left hooks and jabs on his handsome face. Neither did she want her children, Gian Christoph, three and Aquisha Gianna, 11 months, to see their dad being beaten in various parts of his body on TV.

Christopher agreed. So he turned down an offer to join the celebrity boxing show with his fellow actors. The chance to star with Gladys on the new ABS-CBN sitcom George and Cecil (with Ryan Agoncillo and Judy Ann Santos in the title roles) struck a better chord in his heart. So Christopher grabbed the chance to play Gladys’ husband in the series.

And then the call came. It was Richard Arellano, director of Channel 9’s Celebrity Amateur Boxing Series, whose two-week primer starts tomorrow night at 9 on Channel 9 (the series airs weekly on the same timeslot thereafter).

Ryan Eigenmann backed out after his mom, Gina Alajar reportedly put her foot down and said, “No way!” Would Christopher like to replace Ryan?

This time, Christopher had a change of heart. He decided to talk with Gladys to assure her things will be okay. The show has Dr. Manny Calayan’s skin clinic to take care of bruised faces, broken noses, and other things cosmetic. An ambulance is on standby for emergencies.

Thus did Christopher end up frequenting a Marikina gym to prepare for his match with Chad Peralta on June 19.

So dead serious is Christopher about his upcoming matches he practices for at least an hour a day in the gym. He’s been at it for the past month.

With taping and training over, he heads straight home for some family time.

Fatherhood was tough the first time around for Christopher. He panicked at the slightest sign of illness in Christoph. Christopher was so scared of carrying his first-born in his arms he couldn’t hold the infant for more than five minutes.

That explains why Christoph bonded with his dad “only when we were in the mall.” The boy was closer to his mom. He’d cry whenever Gladys left to go for tapings.

But now that he’s older and has a baby sister, the father-and-son bond has grown much stronger. Christoph would say, “Daddy, I love you” when he senses that Christopher doesn’t like what he’s doing.

That dreaded look would come when Christoph is about to throw a tantrum in the dressing room of a TV network where Christopher has a show. Sometimes, the warning signs would come at home.

“Do you want to go to the van?” Christopher asks his son. Going to the van means getting a spanking and a sermon from dad. At other times, Christopher asks his son to face the wall to teach the boy a lesson.

Lest Christopher is labeled a terror dad, he clarifies, “I don’t spank when I’m angry. I just resort to voice acting.”

Sometimes, he just breaks down and cries out of sheer exasperation. When Christoph saw this, he went over to his dad and said, “Daddy, don’t cry!”

These little moments that warm the heart are some of the reasons why Christopher would rather go home than seek his old friends out for a round of beer.

“If I can tuck my children to bed every night, I will. I make it a point to be home before midnight,” reveals Christopher.

He doesn’t mind tucking more children to sleep at night.

“I grew up in a small family,” explains Christopher. And he knows how lonely that can be.

“That’s why I want two more children, hopefully a boy and a girl,” he adds.

Christopher has a lot of convincing to do though. As it is, two children are enough for Gladys.

Well, if he was able to change her mind about him joining the boxing show, Christopher might just convince Gladys to have more children.

The more the merrier. Right, Christopher?