Cardona, Catli fined for pre-season fight

Talk n Text’s Mark Cardona and Sta. Lucia’s Cesar Catli were spared suspension but will draw fines for figuring in a fight in their teams’ duel Monday in the PBA pre-season series at the RTU gym.

PBA technical chief Perry Martinez said the amount of the fines will be announced tomorrow.

"The idea of the pre-season is to let teams evaluate their players. We don’t want to deprive their teams that opportunity so we’re not suspending Cardona and Catli. But they will certainly be fined to show them that they should act within the rules and guidelines of the league," said Martinez.

Cardona and Catli, who had had their fierce match-ups in the UAAP and in the PBL, were at it again Monday, nearly mixing it up after a rugged play in the closing minutes of the contest.

Cardona, a former La Salle Archer, and Catli, an ex-FEU Tam, were thrown out of the contest. Had it happened in a regular game, the two would have served automatic suspension the following game aside from being fined.

"They could have earned suspension but we don’t want to take away the real intention of the pre-season which is to provide avenue for teams to test their players," said Martinez.

The two figured in two collisions with the last one seeing Cardona swinging an elbow then Catli retaliating. But proverbial cooler heads kept the incident from getting out of hand.

Felix Belano scored 22 points and Cardona added 17 as the Phone Pals drubbed the Sta. Lucia Realtors, 93-84. Most of the key players of both teams didn’t play, though.

The 10 teams are divided into two groups in this pre-season series. The two groups play one round-robin each with the top two teams advancing to play in a one-game final.

Red Bull, San Miguel, Coca-Cola, Talk n Text and Sta. Lucia are bunched in Group A while Purefoods, Alaska, Ginebra, Air21 and Welcoat compose Group B.