Thoughts on rematch in Cauayan, Sipalay

Last Thursday, I found time during the Holy Week break to watch the tape of the controversial Pacquiao-Marquez II fight in Las Vegas. I watched the tape of the March 15, 2008 bout at the scenic beach resort of Clarence Chua of Tate and Lyle (internationally known sugar traders of Splenda fame) and his wife, Lani, of Julio Sy Jr.’s TAO Corp. (key benefactor of the Philippine basketball team) in Masaling, Cauayan, Negros Occidental.

The Chuas, a politically prominent clan in the province, built their vacation house 2 1/2 hours by land from the New Bacolod Silay airport. I had missed the bout’s live telecast since I was in Singapore on my way to Bandung, Indonesia on the day of the fight and Thursday was perfect for viewing.

Pacquiao won via split decision after a bruising 12-round fight, thus wresting Juan Manuel Marquez’s World Boxing Council (WBC) super featherweight crown. This second match up was supposed to have put a conclusive end to the “Unfinished Business” between him and Manny Pacquiao.

In that first bout, Marquez was sent to the canvas three times by Pacquiao in the first stanza but the durable and courageous Mexican not only got up to shake off the cobwebs but also brought the fight to Pacquiao and earn a draw.

In Part II, Pacquiao decked “Dinamita” Marquez just once, with around 20 seconds to go in the third round. Again Marquez survived the knockdown but this time lost. Opinions however, on who won the fight seemed to have been equally divided among a Marquez victory, a Pacquiao triumph and a draw.

I thought that the fight was a draw and scored it, 114-114. I had Pacquiao winning five rounds and Marquez six, including the 12th. I scored the 11th even. What saved Pacquiao was the third round which I scored 10-8 in his favor.

As I mentioned in Arnold Clavio’s program over dzBB on Friday, two days before the title fight, I expected Marquez to throw more leather and be more aggressive compared to their first fight in 2004. I added however that Marquez would remain essentially a counter puncher fighting from a distance. And throw more leather Marquez did, thus making the fight a truly fascinating one.

Having seen the tape, my next stop with the Chuas was the vacation home of Joe (or Baby) Trebol, also with Tate and Lyle, in Sipalay, some 30 minutes from Cauayan. At the Trebol rest house I bumped into former Silay City mayor and forward of the legendary De La Salle 1956 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) champion basketball squad, Carlo Gamban.

The conversation with Gamban, a boxing aficionado and former scratch handicapper in golf, naturally drifted towards the Pacquiao-Marquez bout (those who joined Gamban and I in our Monday morning quarterbacking were also divided on the winner of the fight) and eventually to Gamban’s basketball exploits.

Fresh from Iloilo’s St. Clement’s High School, Gamban was to go either to Ateneo or San Beda and play in the NCAA. Carlos Ledesma, a dyed-in-the wool Lasallite and patriarch of one of Bacolod’s most respected families, however, got the then 160-pound, 5-11 prolific scorer (averaging 31 points in the high school basketball competitions in Iloilo City) to play instead for the Green Archers.

The basketball five of the De La Salle High School, anchored by Kurt Bachmann Jr. had just won the NCAA junior title in 1955 (after 50 years, in 2005, De La Salle Zobel would win another junior championship, this time in the UAAP). The senior Archers, under coach Rogelio LaO and trainer Dionisio (Chito) Calvo, were then, coincidentally, undergoing a build up for the 1956 NCAA cage wars. LaO already had veterans like Nonggoy Hernaez, Henry Feraren, Hever Bascon, Jun Alicante and Quirino Gamboa.

Rookies like Gamban, Bachmann, Vicente Araneta and Dominador Sevillano backed up by Jose Laganson, Rafael Corrales, Antonio Iboleon, Hector Gamboa, Honorato Cruz, Nikki Perpletchikoff and Jesus Santamaria certainly beefed up the Archers.

Down by 15, 40-25, in the championship game at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum against the Mapua Cardinals led by Charlie Badion and Carlos Mandilag, the Green Archers caught fire in the second half to win, 79-75.

Having served as Silay City mayor from 2001 to 2007, Gamban certainly knows the problems of agriculturally dependent localities: close to 60 percent to 70 percent of families of the city’s population of 100,000 are considered poor. In the meantime, the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment is P160 M per year, with 60 percent of it going to personal services. As Gamban, said, “It was a challenge making do with so little and yet I was able to contribute my share in having a new airport and improve hospital and educational services.”