The squared circle’s collapse

I had the pleasure of working with fellow Star columnist Quinito Henson on last Friday’s twin WBC International title bouts dubbed "The Great Encounter" by promoter Bebot Elorde. I was elated over both the coverage and the outcome. Arman dela Cruz dethroned WBC International Minimumweight champion Ernesto Rubillar while former world champion Malcolm Tuñacao regained respect by knocking out towering Indonesian champion Ringgo Jaguar and claiming the vacant WBC International Superflyweight title.

The event, coinciding with Rizal Gov. Nini Ynares’ birthday, showed how well boxing can be promoted. But it also brought to mind the other side of the coin. The Great Encounter was well put together, but it was the exception to the rule. There are several ills that still remain to be solved if we are to consistently produce champions in the squared circle.

A culture of slavery. Boxing will probably always be a poor man’s sport here in the Philippines. That is why boxers will be predominantly unsophisticated and uneducated. Many Filipinos earned big reputations in the United States during the Depression because boxing was their only way out of poverty. In their spare time, today’s boxers pay off their managers by working as errand boys, masseurs, and utility men. This is not exactly conducive to building up the education they need, both inside and outside the ring. Aside from that, beginners who fight four-rounders earn a measly P1,500 or so for getting their faces bashed in. Half of this (or more) goes to their managers. This just keeps them in poverty, unless they suddenly string up wins and become contenders.

Lack of education. What made the young Mike Tyson such a terror in the ring, and what made him the world’s youngest heavyweight champion? It was not his hitting power or ferocity. It was his boxing pedigree. When the legendary Cus D’Amato (who bred the world’s first Hispanic world champion in Jose Torres and the world’s lightest heavyweight champion in Floyd Patterson) took Tyson under his wing, he made sure the young man would be focused only on boxing. He enclosed Tyson in his basement, and let the youngster study his collection of over 3,000 fight films. Iron Mike saw them all, living or dead: Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, you name ‘em, he watched them again and again. Our boxers, unfortunately, do not have that luxury.

Inner circles. You have to be part of one or two big groups to get a decent chance of climbing into contention. New promoters and managers have an especially hard time penetrating an inner circle of their more established counterparts. Boxers, therefore, tend to gravitate towards these name managers, where they will have to wait their turn. At the other end of the spectrum, it is also dangerously easy to become a promoter, because there aren’t really too many requirement to be one. And it only costs a few hundred pesos. Although this means pro boxing is open to those who want to help, it also means that corruption can easily creep in. But boxing has to take the good with the bad, or else its numbers will shrink.

Unscrupulous promoters. Some promoters will do anything to get their money back, regardless of its impact on the profession. I know of one promoter who was contracted by a television network to produce its weekly boxing show. Boxers were shipped in from all over the country for the Friday night taping. The promoter was paid to house and feed them until their boat departed Sunday. Instead, he pocketed the money and dumped the beaten and tired fighters at the pier late Friday nights, where they were to spend what was left of their meager earnings fending for themselves until they went home bitter. That’s why the fight game has had very little progress. Also, international promoters will blackmail contenders to sign away

promotional rights or else they won’t get title shots. This means that, even before a Filipino wins a world championship, he has already signed away his first three title defenses.

Lack of proper training. How many qualified trainers are there, really? Many former boxers become trainers and coaches themselves, and some are immensely qualified. But for the most part, outdated techniques or old-fashioned methods are passed on to a new generation of willing - but naive- pugs. Mental training, psychology and visualization, just to name a few modern tools, are not incorporated into the regimen. How will they be able to keep up?

Hometown decision. The Orient-Pacific Boxing Federation once informed me that Filipinos were fighting in about 15 or so international or world championships a year back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They also said we were perennially getting cheated. Our pugilists have experienced everything from drivers who get them last from the airport, to poisoned water, to extremes of temperature at the venue itself. In the case of Tuñacao and Rubillar, they were both preparing for different opponents who never showed up. Every trick in the book has been foisted on Filipino boxers. And there is nothing to protect them.

Lack of awareness. There has been a proliferation of boxing shows since 1998, when major networks came up with three weekly boxing shows almost in succession. With all due respect, however, boxing programs, by design, do not develop stories or heroes. You don’t know who’s fighting from one week to the next, and you don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the fistic community. Basketball has a tournament format, and summaries to keep you updated. Boxing does not. This inconsistency is why only world champions like Manny Pacquiao are known to the masses. Even the newspapers hardly feature Philippine championships. If not for independent promoters, even holders of international titles would not be recognized in their own country.

Additional income. And once a boxer does become a world champion, he does not receive the attendant promotional monies that he would in other countries. Compare the endorsement deals that a Manny Pacquiao gets with the handsome packages of an Oscar dela Hoya. The gap is stunningly large. Promoters here are mostly boxing people, not marketers or spin masters. And since they grew their fighters with tightened belts, they don’t see the value of stretching their earning potential by hiring experts in those fields.

What boxing needs is a congregation of experts in various fields focused on creating a champion who will be both talented and palatable to a worldwide audience. Sadly, that will require an investment that nobody is prepared to make.

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The Basketball Show gave way last Saturday to the United Nations address of President Gloria Arroyo. It will be broadcast over IBC-13 tonight at 6 p.m.