Tina and Manny Redux

Published

10 years ago

September 9, 2014

— Photo Credit : Chris Farina

Millions of words have been written about the adoration that the Filipino people feel for Manny Pacquiao. Five years ago, I put a face on that adoration in the person of Tina Cruz.

Tina was born in the Philippines in Santiago Isabela province. Her parents were rice farmers. In 1983, she came to the United States. Five days a week, Tina rose at four o’clock in the morning and went to the design company in New York where she worked in cleaning maintenance. With Top Rank’s permission, I brought her to Yankee Stadium to meet Manny at the kick-off press conference for his 2009 fight against Miguel Cotto.

Tina was ushered into a stadium restaurant that was closed to the outside world to meet Pacquiao before the proceedings began. They were introduced. Then the image she’d seen on television for years was talking with her. They spoke in Tagalog; about his children and hers, life in the Philippines, and her joy in meeting him. After the press conference, Manny posed for a photo with her and gave her autographs for several family members.

“Omigod!” Tina says, looking back on that day. “After that article about me and Manny [http://www.secondsout.com/columns/thomas-hauser/tina-meets-manny], I got so many calls. Some of them were from people I hadn’t seen for years. They were all asking, ‘Did you really meet Manny?’ I told them, ‘Yes! And he was so nice. He really talked to me.’”

Tina turned 75 on September 4 of this year. That was the same day a press conference (the last stop on a six-city 27,273-mile media tour) was held at the Liberty Theatre in New York to promote the November 22 fight in Macau between Pacquiao and Chris Algieri. To celebrate Tina’s birthday, once again I brought her to meet Manny.

In 1948, reflecting back on all that had happened to him as a consequence of boxing, Joe Louis observed, “I couldn’t dream that big.” The same might be said of Pacquiao.

Manny rose to iconic status after beating Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, one year before he and Tina met. A lot has happened since then.

After devastating Cotto, Pacquiao scored back-to-back triumphs at Cowboys Stadium over Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito. Victories over Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez followed. Then Manny lost a controversial decision to Tim Bradley and suffered a one-punch knockout loss at the hands of Marquez. Decision wins over Brandon Rios and Bradley were next on his ring ledger.

An entire generation of boxing writers can now spell “Pacquiao”. Political commentators have learned the name too. In 2010, Manny was elected to the Filipino Congress as a representative from Sarangani province. One can argue that Vitali Klitschko (now mayor of Kiev and leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform) is a genuine political leader whereas Pacquiao is not. But Manny is a powerful symbol and takes his responsibilities seriously. “Politics is different than sports,” he says. “Politics is about the nation and the people. There is no way to compare politics to boxing.”

On September 4, Tina arrived at the Liberty Theatre at 10:00AM and was brought to a room on the second floor where Pacquiao was seated with a small group of reporters in advance of the press conference.

Manny was casually dressed, wearing neatly-pressed slacks and a sport jacket over a polo shirt. Tina took a seat five feet away from him. “To be this close to Manny again. I’m so excited,” she said.

When the group interview ended, Tina and Manny were reintroduced and he was told that it was her seventy-fifth birthday.

“We met five years ago,” Tina said. “I’m very happy that I get to see you again.”

“I’m happy to see you too,” Manny told her. “Happy birthday.”

Several photographers took photographs of them together. Then everyone moved downstairs and the press conference began.

Pacquiao is a 10-to-1 betting favorite over Algieri. He’s the faster, stronger, more experienced fighter and hits harder. Chris has a good chin. But as Manny’s trainer, Freddie Roach, notes, “It’s great to have a good chin, but you can’t rely on that. Good punchers outlast good chins.”

Also, in Macau, Pacquiao will be the house fighter. The crowd can’t fight. But the crowd (with its cheers, oohs, and aahs when the favorite lands) can influence the judges’ perception of what they see in the ring.

That said; it’s never easy at the elite level in boxing. Algieri showed his mettle when he came back from two first-round knockdowns to decision Ruslan Provodnikov (the only opponent to put him on the canvas) despite fighting the final eleven rounds with an eye that looked like something out of a Halloween horror movie.

There was a nice buzz in the Liberty Theatre. The press conference dragged on a bit too long (as they are wont to do). But it ended on an upbeat note with Pacquiao, speaking in Tagalog, giving “a hug to Filipinos all over the world.”

Tina shook hands with Algieri and told him, “My heart is with Manny. But good luck to both of you.”

“Thank you,” Chris responded. Then he added, “If I was from the Philippines, my heart would be with Manny too.”

In recent years, there has been some slippage in Pacquiao’s ring performances. Algieri is peaking. It’s a prizefight. Anything can happen.

“You know how Filipino people pray,” Tina told me as we left the Liberty Theatre. “When Manny fights, we all pray for him. We will pray for him this time too.”

Her face took on a pensive look.

“I hope the end is happy for Manny. Not the end of this fight but the end when he is done with boxing. But this is life, so who knows.”

Then Tina smiled.

“For a long time, I was not liking that I’m going to be seventy-five. And now, to see Manny again on my birthday, I love that today I’m seventy-five.”

Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His most recent book (Reflections: Conversations, Essays, and Other Writings) was published by the University of Arkansas Press.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

WBA Feather Champ Nick Ball Chops Down Rugged Ronny Rios in Liverpool

Published

2 hours ago

October 5, 2024

Arne K. Lang

WBA-Feather-Champ-Nick-Ball-Chops-Down-Rugged-Ronny-Rios-in-Liverpool

In his first fight in his native Liverpool since February of 2020, Nick Ball successfully defended his WBA title with a 10^th-round stoppage of SoCal veteran Ronny Rios. The five-foot-two “Wrecking Ball” was making the first defense of a world featherweight strap he won in his second stab at it, taking the belt from Raymond Ford on a split decision after previously fighting Rey Vargas to a draw in a match that many thought Ball had won.

This fight looked like it was going to be over early. Ball strafed Rios with an assortment of punches in the first two rounds, and likely came within a punch or two of ending the match in the third when he put Rios on the canvas with a short left hook and then tore after him relentlessly. But Rios, a glutton for punishment, weathered the storm and actually had some good moments in round four and five.

The brother of welterweight contender Alexis Rocha and a two-time world title challenger at 122 pounds, Rios returned to the ring in April on a ProBox card in Florida and this was his second start after being out of the ring for 28 months. He would be on the canvas twice more before the bout was halted. The punch that knocked him off his pins in round seven wasn’t a clean shot, but he would be in dire straits three rounds later when he was hammered onto the ring apron with a barrage of punches. He managed to maneuver his way back into the ring, but his corner sensibly threw in the towel when it seemed as if referee Bob Williams would let the match continue.

The official time was 2:06 of round ten. Ball improved to 21-0-1 (12 KOs). Rios, 34, declined to 34-5.

Semi-wind-up

A bout contested for a multiplicity of regional 140-pound titles produced a mild upset when Jack Rafferty wore down and eventually stopped Henry Turner whose corner pulled him out after the ninth frame.

Both fighters were undefeated coming in. Turner, now 13-1, was the better boxer and had the best of the early rounds. However, he used up a lot of energy moving side-to-side as he fought off his back foot, and Rafferty, who improved to 24-0 (15 KOs), never wavered as he continued to press forward.

The tide turned dramatically in round eight. One could see Turner’s legs getting loggy and the confidence draining from his face. The ninth round was all Rafferty. Turner was a cooked goose when Rafferty collapsed him with four unanswered body punches, but he made it to the final bell before his corner wisely pulled him out. Through the completed rounds, two of the judges had it even and the third had the vanquished Turner up by 4 points.

Other Bouts of Note

In a lightweight affair, Jadier Herrera, a highly-touted 22-year-old Cuban who had been campaigning in Dubai, advanced to 16-0 (14 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of Oliver Flores (31-6-2) a Nicaraguan southpaw making his UK debut. After two even rounds, Herrera put Flores on the deck with a left to the solar plexus. Flores spit out his mouthpiece as he lay there in obvious distress and referee Steve Gray waived the fight off as he was attempting to rise. The end came 30 seconds into round three.

In a bantamweight contest slated for 10, Liverpool’s Andrew Cain (13-1, 12 KOs) dismissed Colombia’s Lazaro Casseres at the 1:48 mark of the second round.

A stablemate and sparring partner of Nick Ball, Cain knocked Casseres to the canvas in the second round with a short uppercut and forced the stoppage later in the round when he knocked the Colombian into the ropes with a double left hook. Casseres. 27, brought an 11-1 record but had defeated only two opponents with winning records.

In a contest between super welterweights, Walter Fury pitched a 4-round shutout over Dale Arrowsmith. This was the second pro fight for the 27-year-old Fury who had his famous cousin Tyson Fury rooting him on from ringside. Stylistically, Walter resembles Tyson, but his defense is hardly as tight; he was clipped a few times.

Arrowsmith is a weekend warrior and a professional loser, a species indigenous to the British Isles. This was his twenty-fourth fight this year and his 186^th pro fight overall! His record is “illuminated” by nine wins and 10 draws.

A Queensberry Promotion, the Ball vs Rios card aired in the UK on TNT Sports and in the US on ESPN+.

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Alimkhanuly TKOs Mikhailovich and Motu TKOs O’Connell in Sydney

Published

1 day ago

October 4, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Alimkhanuly-TKOs-Mikhailovich-and-Motu-TKOs-O'Connell-in-Sydney

IBF/WBO world middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly, generally regarded as the best of the current crop of middleweights, retained his IBF title today in Sydney, Australia, with a ninth-round stoppage of game but overmatched Andrei Mikhailovich. The end came at the 2:45 mark of round nine.

Favored in the 8/1 range although he was in a hostile environment, Alimkhanuly (16-0, 11 KOs) beat Mikhailovich to a pulp in the second round and knocked him down with one second remaining in the frame, but Mikhailovich survived the onslaught and had several good moments in the ensuing rounds as he pressed the action. However, Alimkhanuly’s punches were cleaner and one could sense that it was only a matter of time before the referee would rescue Mikhailovich from further punishment. When a short left deposited Mikhailovich on the seat of his pants on the lower strand of rope, the ref had seen enough.

Alimkhanuly, a 2016 Olympian for Kazakhstan, was making his first start since October of last year. He and Mikhailovich were slated to fight in Las Vegas in July, but the bout fell apart after the weigh-in when the Kazakh fainted from dehydration.

Owing to a technicality, Alimkhanuly’s WBO belt wasn’t at stake today. Although he has expressed an interest in unifying the title –Eislandy Lara (WBA) and Carlos Adames (WBC) are the other middleweight belt-holders — Alimkhanuly is big for the weight class and it’s a fair assumption that this was his final fight at 160.

The brave Mikhailovich, who was born in Russia but grew up in New Zealand after he and his twin brother were adopted, suffered his first pro loss, declining to 21-1.

Semi-wind-up

Topping the flimsy undercard was a scheduled 8-rounder between Mikhailovich’s stablemate Mea Motu, a 34-year-old Maori, and veteran Australian campaigner Shannon O’Connell, 41. The ladies share eight children between them (Motu, trained by her mother in her amateur days, has five).

A clash of heads in the opening round left O’Connell with a bad gash on her forehead. She had a big lump developing over her right eye when her corner threw in the towel at the 1:06 mark of round four.

Motu (20-0, 8 KOs) was set to challenge IBF/WBO world featherweight champion Ellie Scotney later this month in Manchester, England, underneath Catterall-Prograis, but that match was postponed when Scotney suffered an injury in training. Motu took this fight, which was contested at the catchweight of 125 pounds, to stay busy. O’Connell, 29-8-1, previously had a cup of coffee as a WBA world champion (haven’t we all).

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 299: Golden Boy in Saudi Arabia and More

Published

2 days ago

October 3, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 299: Golden Boy in Saudi Arabia and More

A small brigade of Mexican and Latino-American fighters gathered at the beautiful Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Their mission: to export Mexican style fighting to the Saudi Arabia desert.

Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez defends the WBA cruiserweight title against WBO cruiserweight titlist Chris Billam-Smith and they will be joined by several other top Golden Boy Promotion fighters on Nov. 16 at the Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

DAZN will stream the Golden Boy and BOXXER promotions card called “The Venue Riyadh Season.”

Mexican fighters are known worldwide for their ferocity and durability. Ramirez, a former super middleweight champion, surprised many with his convincing win over former champion Arsen Goulamirian last March.

Now Ramirez seeks to unify the cruiserweight titles against United Kingdom’s Smith who has never fought outside of his native country.

“I will become the first Mexican cruiserweight unified champion. It’s exciting because my dream will come true this November 16,” said Ramirez.

Smith has a similar goal.

“This opportunity for me is huge,” said Smith. “I’ve been written off many times before.”

The cruiserweights will be joined by two top super lightweight warriors who’ve been itching to face each other like a pair of fighting roosters.

Arnold Barboza, an undefeated super lightweight contender from Los Angeles, has been chasing top contenders and world champions for the past six years. Former super lightweight champion Jose Ramirez simply wants action and a return to elite status.

“I’ve been wanting this fight since 2019 for whatever reason it never happened,” said Barboza. “I want to give credit and thanks to Oscar, he’s a man of his word. When I signed to Golden Boy, he said he was going to give me this fight.”

“It’s honorable Barboza saying he’s been chasing the fight since 2019. Now that he stands in the way for me to reclaim my titles it’s time to get that fight on,” said Ramirez.

Others on the Riyadh fight card include Puerto Rico’s WBO minimumweight world titlist Oscar Collazo defending against Thailand’s Thammanoon Niyomtrong, along with Oscar Duarte and lightweight contenders William Zepeda and Tevin Farmer.

One fighter missing from the card is Charles Conwell, the super welterweight contender they recently signed earlier in the year. He last performed on the Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Serhii Bohachuk clash in Las Vegas.

Conwell has similar talent to those two.

And what about the women fighters”

Yokasta Valle recently re-signed with Golden Boy Promotions. What is her next scheduled fight? She was spotted facing up against Australia’s Lulu “Bang, Bang” Hawton at a fight card. Is that on the horizon?

West Coast venues

Speaking of the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles, its just a few buildings north of the Belasco Theater where Golden Boy was staging its club shows for several years.

A majority of the boxing media favored that location for its cozy atmosphere and proximity to LA Live. A number of prospects that developed into contenders and world champions fought there including Vergil Ortiz Jr., Ryan Garcia, Joshua Franco, and Oscar Duarte.

On any given fight night celebrities like Mario Lopez, George Lopez and others would show up in the small venue that held several hundred fans in its ornate theater setting.

The Mayan Theater and Belasco Theater are still open for business. According to one source, LA Laker owner Jeannie Buss stages a pro wrestling show at one of those theaters.

World title fight

England’s Nick Ball (20-0-1, 11 KOs) defends the WBA featherweight world title against Southern California’s Ronny Rios (34-4, 17 KOs) on Saturday Oct. 5, at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England. Starting time for the Queensberry and Top Rank promotion card is 11 a.m. PT.

Ball was last seen nearly toppling WBC featherweight titlist Rey Vargas but lost last March. He then defeated Ray Ford for the WBA title

Fights to Watch

Fri. ESPN+ 2 a.m. PT Janibek Alimkhanuly (15-0) vs Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0)

Sat. ESPN+ 11 a.m. PT Nick Ball (20-0-1) vs Ronny Rios (34-4)

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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