It’s our favorite naturalized Filipino (by a Marcos presidential decree) from Sri Lanka himself, Ronnie Nathanielsz!

I can’t really make a comment on ABS-CBN’s choice itself (considering I’ll soon be technically working for a television network too), although I’m sure you guys must just be thrilled.

I swung by the PBA office last Wednesday for a chat with Commissioner Chito Salud. I had wanted to talk to him about the plans for the PBA’s developmental league, which I’ll be writing about for the March issue of Baller magazine. I’d introduced myself by name as a Baller writer when I booked the interview, so I was a bit surprised when the commissioner’s executive secretary, Ms. Coy, asked me, “Are you Fire Quinito?”

Apparently, my reputation preceded me.

Continue reading "One-on-one with Commissioner Chito Salud: Barako, Gilas, salary cap and other issues"

Yesterday, Ronnie Nathanielsz reported that the referees who worked Sunday’s game between Derby Ace and Talk N Text were suspended by the PBA for calls that affected the outcome of the match.

Later that night, however, the Inquirer published a story correcting the earlier item. Salud said that only one of three suspended refs were actually part of the crew that worked the Derby Ace-TNT game, and the reasons for their suspension was totally different from what the original story said. So the initial report was, well, wrong. It is unclear who wrote the follow-up, Nathanielsz himself corrected the details on Twitter too.

Continue reading "Is Talk N Text being screwed by the refs?"

It was a little late, but Santa’s gift for me this past Holiday season was simply perfect, as two of my least favorite sportswriters, Ronnie Nathanielsz and Quinito Henson, took passive-aggressive shots at each other in a series of columns about the comparative television ratings of the Philippine football team matches and PBA games.

Nathanielsz kicked off stupidities with his report that the first Azkal semifinals game broadcast by Studio 23 (with him as the lead anchor, something he fails to mention in his story) rated better than the previous day’s PBA game, an elimination round game featuring Meralco vs. Rain or Shine. In a follow-up, Nathanielsz wrote that the second Azkals game on Studio 23 brought in higher ratings than the Air 21-San Miguel quarterfinals game that aired that same evening, although the football match still failed to garner as many viewers as that week’s quarterfinals match between Alaska and Barangay Ginebra.

Continue reading "Ronnie Nathanielsz and Quinito Henson have a holiday bitchfight over TV ratings"

It was Rafe Bartholomew who emailed me this morning about this story by Filipino-American boxing writer (and friend of the blog) Dennis ‘D Source’ Guillermo on some beef between Freddie Roach and everyone’s favorite sports writer, Quinito Henson. In his December 20 article in the Philippine Star, Henson quotes Roach directly as saying that if the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley pushes through, the Filipino champion’s camp would push for drug testing, citing previous allegations against Mosley on steroid use:

“It won’t be an easy fight for Manny,” said Roach who arrived here to celebrate Pacquiao’s 32nd birthday and was scheduled to leave Manila for Los Angeles last night. “I think he’s a tougher opponent than (Andre) Berto or (Juan Manuel) Marquez. He can punch with either hand. But if the fight pushes through, I’ll insist on a drug test. He’s been known to take steroids and it shows in his body.”

Roach, however, denies ever saying those words. In an interview with Lem Satterfield of Boxing Scene, he goes ahead and basically calls Henson a liar:

“That's a lie. I never said that. We turned that [drug testing] down once ourselves, so I would have to be a hypocrite to have said that,” said Roach. “So some Filipino writer has written that I had said that, but that’s not true. So I never said that. The thing is that I think that we’re taking the fight that would bring the most money to the table, and that's what the deciding factor will be.”

Continue reading "Freddie Roach calls bullshit on Quinito Henson over Mosley drug testing report"

Quinito Henson had an interesting series of articles last week about Manny Pacquiao’s claim as the greatest fighter ever, and by “interesting,” I mean “incredibly stupid,” even by Quinito’s usual standards. He prefaced the two-part column by saying that he would compare the achievements of four of the greatest boxers of all-time against those of Manny Pacquiao, and promised at the end of the first installment that he would try to make a “logical conclusion” as to which boxer deserves to be called the greatest.

Continue reading "Manny Pacquiao and the greatest fighters of all time"

The bloggers called it. Last weekend, The Boxing Bulletin gathered boxing’s top bloggers for a roundtable discussion about the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, and none of them were particularly optimistic about Margarito’s chances.

Continue reading "Manny Pacquiao dominates Antonio Margarito"

Ronnie Nathanielsz is outraged – outraged I tell ya! – about Manny Pacquiao flying to Las Vegas last week to attend the political rally of Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader. The event adds another entry to the laundry list of distractions for Pacquiao in the training for his November 14 fight against Antonio Margarito.

Continue reading "Manny Pacquiao campaigns for Las Vegas Senator Harry Reid"

A popular chorus among lazy sportswriters is that the PBA is a dying league, a gem that has lost its luster. They rattle off the reasons: the PBA’s gate attendance is on the downturn,¹ the TV ratings are down,² and fan interest is dwindling.³

Continue reading "Is the UAAP a dying league?"

• Noynoy Aquino was proclaimed the 15th president of the Philippines yesterday, which would make James Yap part of the extended First Family. Funny, even though he could end up winning his second MVP award and lead his team to a sweep of the two PBA tournaments, he still wouldn’t have had as good a year as his brother-in-law has had.

Continue reading "Thursday Bullets, starring Noy and James, Jeffrey Cariaso, and the comedic stylings of Dyan Castillejo"