Time to build a sports center

I was wrong. In my write-up about the Pacquiao-de la Hoya match before the fight, I showed how afraid I was that our Pinoy boxing hero would lose. There was even a horrible line that, thankfully, I eventually deleted from my final column. What I erased from my article seconds before I emailed it was an apprehension that the hulk of the Mexican would manage to deliver an imaginary sledgehammer and knock the smaller Pacquiao unconscious to the canvass.

It was not about lack of confidence in Manny. Neither was it absence of faith in his fighting spirit. Rather it was awe I gave to Oscar for his outstanding achievement in the sport. The bagful of championship belts he reaped from many a monumental bout appeared to overshadow the laurels Manny himself also managed to get. In short, I judged them on the scales of their individual records as I failed to reckon the imponderables. This added to the fact that, from conventional wisdom, a contest between two equally skillful pugilists, one bigger than the other, results in the eventual victory of the former. Yes, thank God, I was wrong!

These past few years, Cebu City bred a good number of boxing hopefuls. There were a Randy Suico, a Rodel Mayol and a Boom Boom Bautista, to name a few. The stables of Mr. Antonio Aldeguer and Mr. Rex Salud led a few others in the development of aspiring boxers. While the sensational story of a Pacquiao spurred a horde of pugs to enter the arena, these boxing patrons provided them the breaks.

This was, to a certain extent, the situation when a young Gabriel "Flash" Elorde was on the rise. There was a Mr. Lope Sarreal Sr., who believed in "Bay" and supported him in his quest for immortality.

Additionally, Cebu City, thru one of the visionary businessmen, provided the appropriate venue by constructing the Cebu Coliseum. The massive arena became Elorde's home and the many like Bernabe Villacampo and Franklin Cedeno who followed the championship trail he blazed. The coliseum was, by the standards then, comparable with the best sites of great boxing promotions such that a fighter would feel having carved his niche in the boxing world if his bout would be staged there.

Unfortunately, Mr. Aldeguer, Mr. Salud and others in the boxing business, must have found that the Cebu City Coliseum has lost the attraction it had years ago for they have either gone to the country sides to stage a boxing card or gamble in holding their promotions in expensive hotels. Putting a fight in say, Danao City, is tedious as it is cumbersome but, Cebu City does not have any better venue to offer. On the other hand, investing huge funds for a fight night in, for example, Waterfront Hotel, is inevitable because, boxing aficionados from all over the world cannot anymore be enticed by any other site.

I am certain that among the present and future boxers in the stables of Messrs. Aldeguer and Salud and others, someone may approximate a part of what Manny Pacquiao has achieved. There shall rise a Cebuano boxer who, like Manny, will rally our fractious people and enthrall the fight fans worldwide. Sadly, Cebu City is not ready for him. Unless the city government or a private individual erects such a structure as to become the venue of great sporting events like championship boxing, our city cannot hope to host anyone of his fights. This simple lack of needed facility shall thwart our dreams of producing world champions among our athletes.

It is time to build a new Cebu Coliseum. Let government (or someone) fill up this need for a bigger and comfortable sports center and make sure that we shall not be buried deep in the pages of sporting history.

* * *

Email: [email protected]