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.

As expected, Barangay Ginebra guard Jayjay Helterbrand was named the PBA's Most Valuable Player last night, but his celebration did not last long, as he limped off the court in the fourth quarter of game 4 of Ginebra's best-of-seven Finals series against San Miguel. The Beermen capitalized and tied the series at two apiece with a 106-104 win.

It still feels weird that Helterbrand has an MVP while his more celebrated teammate, Mark "The Spark" Caguioa, does not. Of course, Helterbrand is busting his ass for Ginebra and playing through various nagging injuries, while Caguioa is still out rehabbing his sore pussy injured knee.

Then again, there's a precedent for all of this. A few years ago, an off-guard rose to stardom with an exciting offensive arsenal that literally took away the fans' collective breath. But nagging injuries sidelined the exciting player, so his teammate, an unheralded combo guard with a golden shooting touch, took on more responsibility for the team. The understudy stepped up so well in the star's absence that he ended up leading his team to a championship and winning the Most Valuable Player. The exciting guard was the Skywalker, Samboy Lim, while his cinderella teammate was the Atom Bomb, Ato Agustin, who led San Miguel to the All-Filipino title in 1992 over defending champion Purefoods. Everyone remembers Samboy to be the better player, but it was Ato who won the chip as the MVP.

Helterbrand's hamstring is a major concern for Ginebra, but he will have ample time to rest as the PBA decided to go on a four-day break before game 5, with the Araneta Coliseum booked for its usual playing days on Friday (WWE Smackdown) and Sunday (UAAP Opening Weekend). The fifth game of the series will be played on Monday, July 13.

It's a curious decision for the league, because while it would certainly get larger revenue from the bigger venue, they're also sacrificing their Sunday primetime spot, which is usually the most watched timeslot for PBA games. The league would not be losing money from smaller ratings -- they're guaranteed to be payed by Solar Sports no matter their ratings -- but it's a decidedly short-term decision considering that higher ratings would be more attractive to advertisers for the next conferences. It also limits the exposure of both finalists, because while they'll be playing for a bigger crowd, they most likely will have fewer people watching on television.

The Ryan Gregorio coaching watch continued last night, and the embattled coach extended his team's season with an 84-82 squeaker over Rain or Shine. Meanwhile, Yeng Guiao weaved his magic as the Burger King Whoppers dominated from start to finish to tie up its own series versus Sta. Lucia, 94-81.

Purefoods started out hot, building several 20-point leads throughout the game. The team still played its usual brand on one-on-five offense, but Marquin Chandler, James Yap, and Kerby Raymundo all had hot hands in the early going. The Giants also continued a strategy for containing Jai Lewis that they started in the fourth quarter of the previous game, assigning Rich Alvarez to front Jai Lewis while sending weakside help.

But the Rain or Shine coaching staff figured it all out in the fourth quarter, and made adjustments to load up on the strong side, giving Lewis more space to catch the ball. Alvarez ended up fouling out with a lot of time left and Lewis went to town against Don Allado. The Purefoods shooters also went ice cold in the fourth quarter, which tends to happen because the Purefoods coaching staff never calls any plays. The Giants were bailed out in the last second after a foul was called on a Chandler drive, and he sank the free throws to seal the win for his team.

As if Gregorio's coaching performance was not enough torture, the game was announced by Sev Sarmenta and Quinito Henson, who is officially the worst announcing pair in the PBA today. Sarmenta is usually competent, but alongside Quinito, he just serves as an enabler for Quinito's bullshit.

No, Quinito, Purefoods didn't get tired in the fourth quarter last night; these guys can survive a double-overtime game with an all-Filipino crew. They collapsed not due to fatigue, but because their coach always panics and the team is so poorly-prepared that they rarely ever execute, and they're just bailed out by the talent that they have. You'd know about these things if you actually watched games that you didn't announce.

At the end of the first game's broadcast, Quinito announced, with a tinge of jealousy in his voice, that the panel doing the next game, Mico Halili and Andy Jao, were also going to announce the local broadcast of the NBA Finals for Solar Sports. Which is a great choice, because not only do Halili and Jao always do their homework, they actually know the game and are funny, to boot.

And it was great listening to the two of them discuss the entertaining Burger King-Sta. Lucia duel. In the first game, Sta. Lucia coach Boyet Fernandez decided to focus his defense on the Whoppers' perimeter crew of Arwind Santos, Gary David, and Wynne Arboleda. So Guiao went ahead and benched the three guys, and finished the game with a lineup featuring the trio of Mark Yee, Aaron Aban, and Egay Billones. And it worked! Yee had the game of his life, while Aban and Billones also contributed mightily to the Whoppers' cause on both ends of the floor.

The league takes a long break before the respective third games of the two match-ups, with the PBA-backed Powerade Team Pilipinas coached by Guiao heading to Medan, Indonesia for the SEABA qualifier. The next playdate it set on June 14, which should provide substantial benefits to Rain or Shine and Sta. Lucia. Elastopainters star guard Sol Mercado has been sidelined and Sta. Lucia super import Anthony Johnson has been hampered, both by nagging hamstring injuries, which could only get better with the long layoff.

I thoroughly enjoy Victor Agustin's Cocktales column because, as you may have inferred from the posts on this blog, I love gossip. He's the gossip guy of the local business community.

That said, his post this morning made me laugh out loud, just because of how he got it horribly, horribly wrong:

The chairman of the Philippine Basketball Association, Tony Chua, was seen at the UCC Park Cafe across the Makati Shangri-La meeting with Channel 5 and cable TV executives, apparently discussing the possible transfer of the televised PBA games from Solar Sports.

Except that Tony Chua (of Barako Bull) was replaced by Alaska's Joaqui Trillo as PBA chairman this year, and the PBA has a three-year contract with Solar Sports for the broadcast of PBA games. Furthermore, the games used to be broadcast on TV5 before last year's transfer, and the parting between the PBA and TV5 was not wholly amicable, as TV5 pulled out of the bidding process because it perceived bias on the side of the PBA board for competitor ABS-CBN.

Kaboom!

Also, the blog got some love over the weekend from the best boxing blog on the planet, The Queensberry Rules.

Plus, I just recently had an email exchange with an old buddy of mine, Gary from Basketball Exchange, where I discuss, among other things, my basketball passion, how to fix my favorite PBA team, and of course, Quinito. Of course, my responses were littered with fart jokes, so I don't know if it's ever going to see the light of day. Gary runs a tight ship over there, but watch out for it anyway if ever it does go up.