By Manny Pinol
The two world title fights involving Filipino Edrin “The Sting” Dapudong and South African Gideon “Hardcore” Buthelezi will be aired by GMA News TV on July 14 at 9:30 a.m.
The airing of the fights, the first of which was held on Nov. 10, 2012 which Dapudong lost by a controversial split decision after 12 rounds, comes exactly a month after the Filipino fighter from M’lang, North Cotabato exacted sweet revenge on June 15 by knocking out Buthelezi in the first round.
Both fights were held in the Emperor’s Palace in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The airing of the fight came following the settlement of a dispute over the ownership of the rights for the telecast of the bouts in the Philippines.
A Philippine sports company, Elite Sports, sold the TV rights to GMA Network because of its agreement with the South African broadcaster of the fights.
It was an arrangement which I, as manager of Dapudong contested, because of the fact that our fight contract with Golden Gloves of South Africa, the promoter of the fight, did not contain any provision that we yielded our rights to air the fights in the Philippines.
The dispute was amicably settled, however, through the intercession of several boxing men, including Elmer Anuran of Saved by the Bell Promotions, who wanted the fights to be aired on free TV in the Philippines for the benefit of Filipino boxing fans.
Marivic Araneta, head of GMA Network Sports, said the show which will feature the 12-round first championship fight which ended in a split decision victory for Buthelezi and the second fight which Dapudong by KO in the first round, will be hosted by veteran boxing commentators Quinito Henson and Chino Trinidad.
(Photo caption: World IBO Jr. Bantamweight Champion Edrin Dapudong with Chino Trinidad during the taping of the intro portion of the Dapudong-Buthelezi championship fights.)
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