Donaire's unaired proposal

If in case you haven’t seen it, check out philstar.com in the Internet then click on “The Dean’s Corner” icon to view never-before-seen footage of WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire’s marriage proposal to Rachel Marcial.

The film was taken from footage of over an hour shot at the Makisig studios in Quezon City in 2007. It was one of three episodes produced for “The Ultimate Sports Talk Show” which I was privileged to host. The series, however, never went on the air. And Makisig was later sold, burying the three episodes until their re-emergence on philstar.com.

The Donaire interview has five installments. At the moment, the first two parts are available for viewing. The first part runs for 5:03 minutes with Donaire proposing to Rachel with a song. This was never shown before. They were later married in a civil ceremony in California on Aug. 8, 2008, and will be wed in church in Alabang on Nov. 11 this year. The second part runs for 5:51 minutes as Donaire reveals his humble beginnings and talks about his family. Dino Maragay and the philstar.com staff did a super job of editing the video and interspersing the interviews with rare photographs of Donaire.

Now that Donaire is involved in a contractual controversy with Top Rank, it’s timely to go back four years and remember how he was before becoming the superstar that he now is. At the time of the interview, Donaire had just won the IBF flyweight crown on a devastating one-punch knockout over Vic Darchinyan.

Philstar.com will also imbed video clips of the two other “The Ultimate Sports Talk Show” episodes. One features the masked Mexican wrestler El Hijo del Santo with his stunning wife Gabriela. El Hijo speaks about how masked wrestlers are revered in Mexico, demonstrates how he changes masks without revealing his face and takes on a random fan in an arm-wrestling encounter. The other features PBA legend Francis Arnaiz and his sister Cookie. Arnaiz talks about his PBA heyday, his troubled past and his Christian rebirth. He engages a former UST varsity player in a shoot-out using a kiddie hoop as a side attraction.

There are other videos now available in “The Dean’s Corner” archives – Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman discloses his wish list of 10 PBA players to recruit for the national team, PBA commissioner Chito Salud talks about his officiating philosophy and Cebuana Lhuillier CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier bares his passion for sports.

Additionally, the web page has a video entitled “What They Say About The Dean” with Freddie Roach, Chris Tiu, Michael Aldeguer, Drian Francisco, Dylan Ababou and others in the spotlight.

“The Dean’s Corner” also allows for easy access to stories and columns written in The Philippine Star’s sports section and documents lots of photographs showing Erik Spoelstra, Neil Etheridge, Aly Borromeo, Angel Guirado, Phil Younghusband, Manny Pacquiao, Roach and many more.

It’s our way to connect with you even more closely beyond The Star newspaper and facebook.

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IBF Pan Pacific junior featherweight champion Jae Sung Lee is itching to come back to the Philippines and face anyone willing to take him on in the ring. In 2007, Jae was in Cebu to knock out Tony Arema in the fifth round of his first and only fight in the country.

Jae, 27, has fought six bouts in the US, posting a 2-2-1 record. His overall mark is 11-3-1, with seven KOs. Last February, he defeated Filipino Ray Las Piñas by a majority decision to capture the vacant IBF Pan Pacific crown in South Korea. Jae’s biggest wins were a first round knockout over Chul Hyun Lim for the Korean superbantamweight title in 2007, a sixth round stoppage of Andre Nichols in Atlantic City in 2008, a second round disposal of Tabron Farmer in South Carolina in 2009 and the win over Las Piñas this year.

Jae stands 5-9 1/2 and turned pro in 2004. With the decline in popularity of professional boxing in South Korea, Jae is looking for meaningful fights overseas and his trainer Soo Hwan Hong wants to establish a beachhead in the Philippines. Soo campaigned from 1969 to 1980 and reigned as WBA superbantamweight champion. Lanky like Jae, Soo is 5-7 and posted a record of 41-5-4. Among the Filipinos he victimized were Al Diaz, Ding Cabanela, Edwin Alarcon and Ric Quijano.

There have been 44 Korean world champions. The roster includes Hi Sup Shin who was knocked out by Dodie Boy Peñalosa for the IBF flyweight title, Chang Jung Koo who ruled the lightflyweight division from 1983 to 1989 and registered 15 title defenses, Myung Woo Yuh, Kim Ki Soo, In Jin Chi and In Joo Cho who beat Gerry Peñalosa in a pair of split decisions for the WBC superflyweight crown in 1998 and 2000.

Johnny Elorde and his wife Liza have shown interest to stage a boxing card with Jae in the main event at the Flash Grand Ballroom in Sucat. They will confer with Jae’s representatives in Manila this Friday. Jae is supported by Hyundai Motors.