SECOND District City Councilor Jimmy Dureza thanked international evangelist Pastor Apollo Quiboloy for reviving professional boxing here in Davao City by staging the initial boxing promotion of his Sonshine Sports Management Inc. last Saturday night at the Almendras gym.
“This is a very good move of Pastor Quiboloy. We really need this one to help revive boxing here in Davao,” said Dureza after watching the fights together with his golfing buddies, who also paid the VIP tickets, each worth P5,000.
Dureza was also requested by City Mayor Rody Duterte to represent him atop the ring during The Boxing Revolution I last Saturday night at the Almendras gym to award the golden belt to the new ABF bantamweight champion Sonny Boy Jaro of the Philippines, who stopped Indonesian Ichbal Tobida in the 5th round via a technical knockout.
Duterte and Dureza were among the more than 4,000 boxing fans at the gym last Saturday.
“Mas marami pang nanood ngayon kesa previous boxing card held at USEP gym,” said ring announcer and DJ Marlon Gayog.
The tickets at the general admission were only sold at P100 each.
Sportswriters from Davao and General Santos City, who covered the event were also impressed on the how the fight was documented for cable television by the Sonshine Media Network with state-of-art cameras and lightings.
“It will be shown during the inaugural telecast of Sonshine’s Sports Channel 39 in August,” said SSMI CEO Manny Piñol, who partnered with veteran mediaman Jay Sonza in their blow-by-blow coverage.
Piñol added that this is just only the first of the series of boxing and other sports events that will be supported by SSMI.
“Pastor Quiboloy really wants to help the Filipino boxers from being victims of bias judging in their fights outside the country,” Piñol said.
“Pastor Quiboloy also wants to help the other Filipino athletes from the other sports to become world champions,” said the veteran sports columnist and TV commentator.
In fact, a 65,000-seater dome is already being constructed at the Jose Maria College near the Davao International Airport.
“That will be used also for big international sporting events in the future. Maybe a Manny Pacquiao or Nonito Donaire title-fight,” said the former North Cotabato governor.
Piñol also revealed the Pastor Quiboloy plans to buy another OB van with a satellite to be exclusively used for the sports channel’s coverage.
“That’s how serious Pastor Quiboloy really is in his plan to help the sports here in Davao,” said Piñol.
In fact, Piñol already got the go signal from Quiboloy to go to Cuba to look for a boxing trainer-coach that will help train and develop the young boxers in Davao City soon.
“When I was still the governor in Cotabato, I also hired a Cuban boxing trainer to discover and develop young boxers too. And many of them turned out to be professional boxing champions,” Pinol said. – LITO DELOS REYES
TOP PHOTO: Sonny Boy Jaro receives his ABF bantamweight golden belt from City Councilor Jimmy Dureza after stopping Indonesian Ichbal Tobida in the 5th round of their 12-round title fight held June 28 at the Almendras gym in the main event of The Boxing Revolution I. (Photo by Tommy Iñigo)
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