Red Bull cager does a Tyson, bites girl

A local singer cried foul against her pro cager-boyfriend over the weekend after the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player did a Mike Tyson during a lovers’ spat and bit her arm, Pasig City police reported yesterday.

Celeste Abad, lead singer of the Sold Out Band, complained that Davonn Harp, the Filipino-American power forward of the Red Bull basketball team, assaulted her during a spat inside a motel in Pasig City on Sunday afternoon.

Harp has also been named to the candidates’ pool for the national basketball team bound for the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea in September.

According to Abad, she visited Harp, her boyfriend of six months, in his apartment at No. 7 Platinum 2000 condominium in Greenhills, San Juan and they decided to go to a motel in Pasig City at around 2:30 p.m.

While inside the motel, Abad said she received a text message from a policewoman she identified as Police Officer 1 Janet Sakuna but Harp grabbed her cellphone and tried to erase the text message. Abad did not explain what the text message was about.

The lovers scuffled for possession of the cellphone until Harp bit her right arm.

Abad said they both piped down after the ensuing argument and left the motel together but Harp refused to bring her home and ordered her out of his car a few minutes after they left the motel.

Harp sent her on Sunday a text message that read: "I heard that you’ve filed a case against me. Newspapers bitch. You want 200,000 from me?"

The STAR tried but failed to reach Harp for comment.

The incident prompted Abad to compare Harp to American pro boxer Mike Tyson who has also been involved in several cases of assault against women, and once even bit the ear of his opponent Evander Holyfield.

Abad admitted that she thought Harp was a good lover and she even moved in with him last year.

"Pero umalis ako kasi hindi ko talaga siya matagalan. Lahat na lang ng hawak niya ay ibinabato niya sa akin kapag lasing siya (But I left because I couldn’t bear with him. He throws anything at me whenever he’s drunk)," Abad said. "He’s weird when he’s drunk."

Abad said that when she was living with the cager, Harp would start drinking at 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. and would get rough when drunk.

Police said it was not the first time that Harp got involved in cases of assault against women. During a PBA out-of-town game in Dumaguete City, two girls, aged 15 and 16 years old, also complained that Harp assaulted them.