MANILA, 19 December 2003 — Manny Pacquiao has been named as the mandatory challenger to the soon-to-be-crowned World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight champion.
According to Rod Nazario, Pacquiao’s business manager, boxing man Rudy Salud convinced WBC President Jose Sulaiman to give the Filipino boxing hero a crack at the winner of a title rematch between Briton Michael Brodie and Korean Injin Chi.
Pacquiao is the reigning International Boxing Federation superbantamweight titlist but holds no world titles at the 126-lb. division despite his 11th-round destruction of Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera, who is unofficially regarded as the best featherweight in the world.
“Recently, Atty. Salud wrote Sulaiman, requesting that Pacquiao get a chance to fight for the WBC featherweight title,” Nazario said. “Sulaiman then communicated with Atty. Salud to assure him that Manny has been installed as the mandatory challenger.”
Salud remains an influential figure in the WBC, whose by-laws he wrote in the 1960s with the help of the late Justiniano Montano.
Brodie and Chi fought to a controversial 12-round majority draw recently in Brodie’s hometown of Manchester for the vacant WBC feather throne.
When the verdict was first announced, Chi was declared the winner by majority decision, but Sulaiman — who served as the fight supervisor of the match — discovered that an error was committed during the tabulation of scores of one of the judges.
Brodie and Chi are set to rumble again sometime in March with the winner mandated to face Pacquiao in June or July.
Sulaiman’s decision to make Pacquiao the mandatory challenger augurs well with Nazario’s desire to give his boxer the opportunity to become a three-division champ.
Apart from the IBF super-bantam (122 lbs) crown, which the GenSan native has yet to give up, Pacquiao had previously reigned as WBC flyweight (112 lbs) titlist from December 1998 to September 1999.
Paragua to Press Hunt for GM Title
International Master Mark Paragua will concentrate on his quest for the elusive grandmaster title next year, hopefully with the full support of the private sector back home.
Paragua is the only triple gold medalist among Filipino athletes who saw action in the just-concluded 22nd Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vitenam.
Paragua is set to see action in the FIDE World Championship in Tripoli, Libya and Baku, Azerbaijan April to May next year.
After claiming the individual rapid chess crown and helping the country bag the team title in the same event, Paragua, 19, beat Vietnamese IM Pham Minh Hoang in the last round to lift the Philippines to victory in the standard chess team event.
Aware that the country needed one big win to cement its hold on the gold medal, Paragua, an enlisted member of the Philippine Air Force, engaged Pham in a seldom-used variation of the Sicilian Defense and emerged triumphant in 48 moves at the Van Don Competition hall.
With the who’s who of SEA Games chess watching, among them FIDE vice president Ignatius Leong of Singapore, Asean FIDE President Dan Than Trang of Vietnam and FIDE website director and chief arbiter Casto “Toti” Abundo of the Philippines, Paragua and Pham battled it out, with the Vietnamese finally giving up with just under two minutes left on his clock. Paragua had less than 30 seconds left.
The Tondo-born chess phenom, an adopted son of Bulacan, has a current Elo rating of 2511 which is expected to climb to 2530 or 2535 when the January 2004 FIDE ratings list are released.
Paragua won the first gold for the chess team when he beat FIDE Master Jason Goh of Singapore 1.5-.5 in the championship round of the rapid individual event. Along the way, he beat fellow Filipino and GM Joey Antonio in the quarterfinals and Vietnamese GM Dao Thien Hai, the top seed with an Elo rating of 2590, in the semifinals.
In the rapid team event, Paragua scored 5.5 out of a possible 6.0 points and together with GMs Eugene Torrre, Antonio, Bong Villamayor and IM Jayson Gonzales, powered the Philippines to yet another golden finish. Paragua’s three-gold win also made him a shoo-in for the major award in chess in the Philippine Sportswriters Association Awards Night on Jan. 9 next year at the Manila Pavilion.
Taekwondo Surpass KL Expectations
Strong leadership, a sound program plus lots of prayers spell success for the Philippine taekwondo team competing in the 22nd Southeast Asian Games.
After two days of competition, the Filipino jins have garnered four gold medals to improve their output in the 2001 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games by one, thanks to the victories of Donald Geisler, Alex Briones, Veronica Domingo and Margarita Bonifacio.
And they’re not through yet, with Dindo Simpao and Mary Antoinette Rivero fighting in the men’s heavyweight and women’s featherweight finals, respectively, late Friday.
“Before we left the country, our mission was to have the best overall finish in the SEA Games,” said head coach Noli Gabriel.
The RP karatekas have been consistent topnotchers in the biennial sportsfest with their previous best coming in the 1999 Brunei Games, where they won four gold, four silver and six bronze medals.
Gabriel credited the leadership provided by Philippine Taekwondo Association President Robert Aventajado and executive vice president Sung Chon Hong for doing well here.
“We would not be as good as we are if not for Mr. Aventajado and Mr. Hong, whom I consider as the father of taekwondo in our country,” said Gabriel. “Mr. Hong’s dream is for taekwondo to be the No. 1 sports back home.”
Gabriel said the team’s recent training in Korea against the best players of universities there was crucial. “We did not merely train but actually had sparring matches against their varsity players which toughened up our team.”
Their training in Korea was also timely, he said, because top European taekwondo countries like Sweden and Spain were also around.
‘Goma’ Finally Lands Cherished Gold
Richard Gomez, the movie and television screen idol, also known as ‘Goma,’ has helped the Philippine fencing team win the epee gold in the 22nd Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.
The gold was the first for Gomez in the biennial meet since his first stint in 1995. He settled for silver medals in both the individual and team categories of the same event in 1997 and 2001.
That explains why Gomez unabashedly shed tears with teammates Wilfredo Vizcayno, Avelino Victorino and reserve Almario Vizcayno after they sealed a 45-32 win over the Thailand squad in the finals.
For Wilfredo Vizcayno, the win was a vengeance of sorts. He secured the victory by overwhelming Sriroj Rattaprasert, the same fencer who denied the Filipino the gold in the individual side. Victorino was equally ecstatic, the gilt being his first in the SEA Games and only his second in the international scene after a gold in the regional competitions last year. The feeling was extra special for Gomez-and not because he played the most during the finals, three duels against two by his teammates. He had another reason.
“I’m retiring na kasi from fencing. This is my last year,” said Gomez.
The 27-year-old has many showbiz ventures and commitments, not to mention business concerns. That kept him from fully concentrating on the sport, the main reason why he was relegated to just the team event this year.
Mayol Claims OPBF Title
In a dazzling display of power boxing, Cebuano phenom Rodel Mayol dethroned Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) miniflyweight champion Genki Ohnaka via a first round knockout at the Tokuyama University Gymnasium in Fukuoka, Japan.
The 22-year-old Mayol, fighting out of the Stonewall Boxing Gym of Cebu, unleashed several hard punches on the lanky champion, capped with a left hook-right straight combination to stop Ohnaka in 2:49 of the opening round. Referee David Chung of South Korea waved to stop Mayol from further battering Ohnaka, who crashed to the canvas unconscious.
“I would like to dedicate this win to my chief supporter, Terry Carter as my birthday gift to him, and to my wife and son, to my parents and manager Joy Ouano, and all the Mandauehanons who have always stood by me,” said Mayol.
