By Manny Pinol
A day before IBO World Superflyweight Champion Edrin Dapudong, the 28-year-old boxer from North Cotabato who grew up with my family, defends his title, I am starting to feel butterflies in my stomach.
It’s a strange feeling, sickening at times, but I just could not set aside boxing as one of the most important things to be involved with while I am alive.
The love for boxing is not my monopoly in the family.
All of us, 11 brothers, including our mother before she was confined to the sick bed because of dementia and Alzheimers, are boxing buffs.
Almost half of the ringside seats would be occupied by members of the big family during our boxing promotions.
The addiction or affliction, if you would it such, started with my father, a teacher who followed Gabriel Flash Elorde’s every fight by listening to a small Avegon transistor radio.
Every time Flash Elorde fought, my father, Bernardo, who passed away in 1995, would cut down the tallest bamboo pole which he used in hoisting a long copper wire connected to his small radio set to get a clearer signal.
Whenever the radio commentators’ voices would turn into unintelligible hissing sounds, our tiny heads would fill the space in front of the Avegon radio. Of course, our father’s ear was the closest to the speaker.
My direct involvement with boxing started when I was with Tempo as senior news copy editor in January of 1982.
On the night the Bad Boy from Dadiangas was to defend his title against South Korea’s Chung-Il Choi, the boxing reporter called in sick and sports editor Rudy Navarro frantically looked for a replacement to cover the event at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum ballpark.
I volunteered and that started a very close friendship with the icon of Philippine sports broadcast at the time, Joe Cantada.
It was when I became Governor of North Cotabato when I was finally able to pursue my love for the sport.
With the support of my brothers, especially the youngest, Socrates, the grassroots boxing program which aimed to discover young boys who were to become members of the North Cotabato amateur boxing team was started.
Young boys fought for a measly prize of P100 for the winner and P50 for the loser. The bigger prize was a scholarship offered by the provincial government.
Halfway through my three terms as Governor, I travelled to Havana, Cuba with my bosom friend, Recah Trinidad, to recruit a Cuban boxing trainer, Honorato Espinoza, who stayed in the province for 18 months to train local trainers.
When I lost in my bid to regain the Governorship in 2010, the provincial grassroots boxing program was scrapped.
With nobody to support them, some of the young boxers came to join me in my farm. Others continued their schooling while several of them joined the Armed Forces.
Those who stayed with me were those who turned professional.
I wanted to let go of the boxers but every time I realized that these poor boys pinned their hopes on me to rise out of poverty, I changed my mind.
Three of the Braveheart boys were given the chance to fight for world championships – Edrin Dapudong, Lorenzo Villanueva and Rommel Asenjo – while they were under the promotional management of ALA Promotions but they all failed in the first four attempts.
Dapudong had to suffer two losses – a 3rd round stoppage from Hernan Tyson Marquez in Mexico and a split decision loss to Gideon Buthelezi in Johannesburg – before he finally won the IBO Super Flyweight title with a first round knockout of Buthelezi in the rematch.
Tomorrow, The Sting will defend the title for the first time in East London, South Africa against an unknown ex-convict, Lwandile Sityatha who is obviously a hungry and desperate fighter.
It could be Dapudong’s last engagement on the road and in faraway places.
With the support of Filipino spiritual leader Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy who has adopted the Braveheart boxers , a new sports management company, Sonshine Sports Management, has been established to promote big boxing events in the Philippines.
Dapudong’s title defense tomorrow will be the 6th world championship fight that the boys who grew up in my care will be involved in.
Until today, though, I still have butterflies in the stomach every time the boys from North Cotabato who grew up under my care figure in very critical fights.
It’s a mixture of anxiety, excitement and to a certain degree fear of the unknown.
But this is just the mix of indescribable feelings which makes boxing exciting.
And this is why I love boxing.
(Photo caption: Boxing has brought me to so many places around the world, from Cuba to Australia, from Mexico to South Korea. This photo was taken in East London, South Africa with the huge waves of the Indian Ocean behind me.)
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