The Cuneta Astrodome was barely half-full, but you wouldn’t know it from the cheers of the audience. I went to the card with two of the biggest boxing nuts among my friends, Alekos Orendain, whom you might remember as the resident reviewer of the HBO 24/7 series on the site, and Alex Tizon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning colleague who “has been punched in the face more often than any of [his] closest friends.” Each of them had to travel halfway across the metropolis on a fine Saturday morning in January just to spend the next several hours watching skinny men pummel each other.

It was no surprise to us, therefore, that the crowd was composed of fellow boxing nuts who, when not screaming at the action in the ring, were busy hooting and hollering at, and pretty much sexually-harassing, the round girls during breaks. Testosterone dripped heavily in the air.

Brian Viloria, the IBF Junior Flyweight champion who headlined the card, gave the crowd plenty to cheer for early in his bout against Colombian challenger Carlos Tamara. “The Hawaiian Punch” took the action straight to Tamara, all but erasing his previous reputation, which he got during his first title reign four years ago, as a disappointing fighter who relied solely on his skills and talent but failed to show courage or heart.

Viloria held steady in a slugfest early in the game, to the delight of the crowd who chanted his name. “Brian, take it in the warehouse!” screamed a well-meaning fan, whose message was lost in translation; literally, it means “Brian, kunin mo sa bodega!” They were instructions, in colloquial Tagalog, for Viloria to keep taking it to Tamara’s body. Viloria complied, despite the mangled commands, shaking the challenger with furious body blows.

Then, all of a sudden, in the ninth-round, Tamara unleashed a 1-2 combination, and Viloria got hit. And hit. And hit. And hit. And hit. And hit. And hit. And hit.

You get the idea. For the next four rounds Viloria, who had been controlling the fight, looked dazed and exhausted. Finally, referee Bruce McTavish mercifully stopped the fight as Viloria showed signs of having trouble staying on his feet on his own. Tamara, himself a former Olympian like the fallen champion, celebrated the biggest victory of his career. The crowd, meanwhile, applauded both the conqueror and the fallen hero.

It was a terrible loss for Viloria, to be sure, although I’m sure fan sympathy remains with him for his gallant stand. Filipino boxing fans, especially the kind of nuts who were in attendance last Saturday, would much rather see their champions carried off their shields rather than coasting through to questionable victories. Viloria had a lot to be proud of in his performance this weekend.

I don’t know if Viloria has what it takes to climb the mountain once more. A lot has been made of his remarkable comeback after losing to his first world title to Omar Niño Romero, and then falling short in two attempts to regain a title, in a rematch against Romero and a title fight against Mexican champion Edgar Sosa. He toiled in a series of low-profile bouts before getting a shot against Ulises Solis, whom he knocked out at last year at the Araneta Coliseum. It was the best performance of his career, and he admitted afterward that had he lost, he would have contemplated retiring from the sport.

I also don’t know if Viloria would quit now; when was the last time a boxer retired young and stayed retired? But then, the knock on him during his entire professional career had been his desire, and the lack of it might just be enough to keep him away from the ring, if he does end up hanging up his gloves.

But the real big loser over the Viloria upset has to be Solar Sports, who ended their deal with Top Rank boxing to concentrate on building up the “Boxing at the Bay” series as a franchise. But without a big draw like Viloria, you could say Solar is up the Manila Bay without a paddle.

Meanwhile, Top Rank has signed a deal with Solar’s rival, ABS-CBN, who will be broadcasting all the big Top Rank cards that do not involve Manny Pacquiao. This includes next month’s Pinoy Power/Latin Fury card, which will feature Nonito Donaire, Gerry Peñalosa, and Bernabe Concepcion.

It’s a stunning turnaround for Solar, who only a year ago co-produced with Top Rank the highly-successful “the Flash the the Furious” card featuring Donaire and Viloria. It’s amazing just how they squandered all of their momentum from that event.

In the undercard, WBO minimumweight champion Donnie “Ahas” Nietes was very impressive in his non-title fight against Mexican Jesus Silvestro. Despite being a last-minute replacement, Silvestro bucked an opening-round knockdown to give a very competitive fight for Nietes, who displayed all of his skills. The match was fun to watch, with the two little guys going at it at warp-speed, but it ended weirdly in a technical knockout after Silvestro spat out his mouthpiece intentionally to buy some time in his corner.

Veteran Jimrex Jaca came off an almost two-year layoff to knock out Indonesia’s Ramadhan Weriu in the fifth round of their scheduled 10-round bout. Most casual boxing fans remember Jaca as the victim of Pacquiao’s rival, Juan Manuel Marquez, in 2006.

20-year-old lightweight prospect Jason Pagara survived in a majority decision against Indonesian Eddy Comaro in their ten-round bout. The first judge saw the fight as a 95-95 draw, while the second gave it barely to Pagara, 96-94. The crowd was stunned when it was announced that the third gave a lopsided 98-92 score to Pagara, and roundly booed the decision. The audience cheered roundly for the losing Indonesian fighter, proving indeed the crowd was full of knowledgeable boxing nuts.

Some very sad news broke out of Las Vegas on the eve of the much-anticipated Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight. Filipino fighter Z Gorres collapsed after his 10-round decision victory over Colombian Luis Melendez and was rushed to a Las Vegas hospital, where Boxing Scene reports that he was diagnosed with subdural hematoma. Gorres had to be placed in a medically-induced coma as doctors had to remove part of his skull to relieve the swelling of his brain.

It was an unfortunate turn of events for Gorres, whose win over Melendez would have assured him of a spot in a new Pinoy Power card headlined by Nonito Donaire next year. Instead, he is now battling for his life. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Z and his family.

Oh shut up. You know you’re going to click and read every link in this post. Kunyari ka pa.



Lolit Solis claims that the Carla Abellana-JC Intal breakup is just a gimmick, so fans would be fooled into thinking that Carla is available to fall in love with her Rosalinda leading man Geoff Eigenmann. Manay Lolit posts as proof pictures of the couple together.

Kris Aquino and James Yap have set their church wedding for October next year, which is, oddly enough, right in time for the opening of the new PBA season. Also, as a Purefoods fan, I’m just happy that Kris is not in charge of James’s career, because if she were, Kris would have her husband play for the Coca-Cola Tigers, according to this Rey Joble blog post.

Mommy Dionisia Pacquiao, mother of the people’s champion Manny Pacquiao, will star opposite Ai-Ai de las Alas and former President Joseph Estrada in Star Cinema’s Metro Manila Film Festival Entry Ang Tanging Pamilya. Curiously, the movie goes head on against Manny’s film festival entry, Wapakman.

What’s keeping Chris Tiu busy apart from playing for Smart Gilas? Apparently, according to Dolly Ann Carvajal, flirting away with Wilma Doesnt.

Nonito Donaire, one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, was eliminated in the latest round of Celebrity Duets. He’s still a better singer than Manny Pacquiao though.



Valerie Concepcion denies that she’s in a relationship with Wowowee host Willie Revillame. She does confirm though that she and Dondon Hontiveros are still dating and "enjoying each other’s company."

Another Wowowee co-host, RR Enriquez, celebrated her birthday and her wish? To have a boyfriend. Last August, RR denied rumors that she was seen torridly making out with Jayjay Helterbrand in public.

Fire Quinito rounds up all the best reads from the aftermath of Pinoy Power 2, so you can sit back and continue to wonder why Willie Revillame still has a job.

Gabriel Montoya, Max Boxing: “[Rafael] Concepcion came out smoking landing hard left hooks that got [Nonito] Donaire’s attention. Donaire answered by digging into Concepcion’s body early and often. A right by Concepcion landed and seemed to incense Donaire who jumped all over him and unloaded a few rights in an attempt to tame him. By the end of the second, Concepcion was cut over his left eye and Donaire had eaten enough left hands to change his tactics up a bit. Donaire came out looking to box and move around the large ring. His quicker feet and hands allowed him to stay on the outside and pick and peck, slip and slide his way around the slower but hard charging Concepcion. In the middle rounds, Concepcion began to catch up and corner Donaire, putting hard and heavy hands on him and forcing the ‘Filipino Flash’ to stand and fight. This seemed to favor the bigger and stronger Concepcion who rocked Donaire and worked his way through the Flash’s leaky defense. Donaire steeled himself as the fight progressed to the championship rounds and regained control, moving and boxing from the outside. It became a case of ‘win this one look good in the next one.’ However, Concepcion did not go quietly and the two traded hard down the stretch of what was billed as a showcase fight for Donaire but ended up being a very good little scrap.”

Michael Rosenthal, The Ring: “Donaire didn’t look great against Rafael Concepcion on Saturday in Las Vegas but deserves some credit. He fought a rugged, very aggressive guy who outweighed him by a good 10 pounds and found a way to win fairly easily. He used his athleticism and skills to keep the Panamanian at a distance for almost the entire fight, engaging him only enough to score points and win a clear decision. Donaire wanted a knockout but, all in all, it wasn’t a bad night. And I applaud him for going through with the fight in light of the weight difference. That was a gamble.”

Tim Starks, The Queensberry Rules: “In the 6th, [Bernabe] Concepcion came out significantly more aggressively, and good for him, since he was now in about a 4-1 hole on the scorecards and needed to do something. He still didn't win the round, but at least he gave himself a chance. That is, until he landed a huge right hand well after the bell as Luevano moved in to do a sportsmanlike touch of the gloves, the same gesture he and Concepcion exchanged at the end of every single round. Why did Concepcion do it? No clue. Probably frustrated that he couldn't connect on Luevano much. And yes, Luevano left himself very defenseless and shoulders some of the blame for ending up with an icebag on his head, but he was just doing what he'd done at the end of every round with no apparent threat of Concepcion doing some between-rounds violence. Concepcion got disqualified, and very rightfully so. Bob Arum, the promoter of the entire 'Pinoy Power 2' card, said he'd see about arranging a rematch in December. A rematch is the right decision from the standpoint of what's just, but wow, I am not looking forward to that one. I'd rather be defenestrated.”

Steven Luevano, Nonito Donaire, Rafael Concepcion, and Bernabe Concepcion

I tuned in to Pinoy Power 2, and the first bout I watched was a terribly familiar sight. It was a fight I’d seen a thousand times before: the Filipino challenger, all heart and no head, stalking the wily foreign champion, who keeps his distance and tags his opponents with timely hits. It’s every other boxing fight by every other Filipino boxer, and watching it gave me no reason to think that the result would be any different. In this case, it was Filipino boxer Bernabe Concepcion against Mexican champion Steven Luevano.

Then an odd thing happened at the end of the seventh round. The bell rang, but instead of turning back and heading to his corner, Concepcion launched another haymaker that hit Luevano straight in the jaw, knocking the champion down. The referee promptly disqualified Concepcion, who would later claim that he did not hear the bell ringing, as Concepcion’s trainer Freddie Roach protested.



Our guy still lost, but at least this one was different. I still don’t know if Concepcion is any better than all those other Filipino boxers from yesteryears who had their fifteen minutes of fame in the ring before getting outclassed by true champions, but the handlers of both sides have already indicated a desire to do a rematch. We’ll find out soon enough.

With that, I thoroughly enjoyed Nonito Donaire’s title defense match against Panamanian challenger Rafael 'El Torito' Concepcion. It wasn’t Donaire’s best performance, and he obviously had his hands full against his opponent who came in to the fight two divisions heavier, but Donaire showed flashes of why this brutal sport is called the sweet science.

And it’s also refreshing, with Donaire’s unanimous victory, to see a Filipino fighter for once not playing the bull, but the matador – and, as these things usually go, the winner.