Banal title fight will be held here
After a testy period of back-and-forth negotiations, ALA Promotions has won the battle to stage the fight for the vacant World Boxing Organization bantamweight title which was relinquished by Mexican warrior Jorge "Travieso" Arce, who is moving up in weight to challenge WBO/IBF superbantamweight champion Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire in October.
It took a strong commitment by ALA Promotions not to allow No. 1-ranked AJ "Bazooka" Banal to be at the mercy of the Thais who regrettably have earned a reputation for hometown decisions and more than that, making it hard on visiting fighters.
Even the WBC complained that when lightflyweight champion Adrian Hernandez fought Kompayak Porpramook in a title defense on December 23 last year, he was billeted in a "hot motel" and made to reportedly sit under the sun for some two hours before the title fight got underway.
The staging of fights in open air venues in the blistering early afternoon heat often takes its toll on foreign fighters, and it was something ALA Promotions president, youthful Michael Aldeguer, was not prepared to put his prized fighter through considering Banal had waited so long for this once-in-a-lifetime title shot.
We have been keeping track of the difficult negotiations between Aldeguer and the big OneSongchai Promotions outfit that handles No. 2 ranked Pungluang Sor Singyu since they appeared determined to give their fighter an edge by staging the fight in Thailand.
Pungluang Sor Singyu is a tough, strongly-built slugger with an impressive record of 42-1 with 27 knockouts. The southpaw Banal, in contrast, is considered a more skilled boxer with a record of 28-1 with 20 knockouts.
The title fight would probably never have materialized without the strong support and financial backing of the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN which has worked closely with ALA Promotions in its highly successful "Pinoy Pride" series over the preeminent channel 2. The title showdown will take place at the spanking new Mall of Asia Arena on October 20.
E-mails from Siraphon Songchai Jr, son of the big-time Muay Thai promoter Songchai Ratanasuban, to us provided an insight into their thinking. In one e-mail last July 17 he wrote "AJ is so difficult to talk to. Why? Do they have big sponsors in the Philippines?"
The Thai promoters, in an effort to up the ante, offered Banal a purse of $110,000 believing perhaps that the ALA-ABS combine would not make the call. But they obviously didn't reckon with the tenacity of ABS-CBN's top honcho Gabby Lopez and vice president for Sports, Peter Musngi.
Allowing the title fight to be staged in Thailand would have proved to be a programming nightmare for ABS-CBN since the fights which are telecast by Channel 7 in Thailand are held on Friday afternoons, which would have run smack into the top-rating shows of the Philippine network.
In a previous e-mail we were asked by the Thais whether ALA Promotions had any major TV network behind them, which forced us to tell them about the bigness of ABS-CBN and its many platforms, including The Filipino Channel which is hugely popular among Filipino communities especially in the Middle East.
In the end, a relieved ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told us that the fight had been sanctioned by WBO president Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel after Aldeguer submitted the contracts signed by the Thais.
In terms of the fight itself Aldeguer said Banal "had waited so long. Now this is it."
He said Banal was "doing well and had matured a lot" since he suffered a shocking 10th-round knockout at the hands of Panama's Rafael Concepcion in a WBA super flyweight interim title fight at the Cebu Coliseum on July 26, 2008 when Banal was in control of the bout and was leading on the scorecards of all three judges.
Banal was slowly but methodically nurtured back into contention by respected boxing patron and Michael's father, Tony Aldeguer, and has won eleven straight fights against a variety of seasoned foreign opponents.
The reigning WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight champion won the title with a fifth round knockout of Japan's Hayato Kimura on July 17, 2010.
In a tune-up fight before a huge crowd in Dumaguete City last July 21, Banal scored a comfortable eight-round decision over Indonesian journeyman Ruben Manakane.
Banal did the right thing by not going for an early knockout since he needed to put in some work and go the distance because his trainers wanted to check on how Banal adopted some of the things they had been working on.
The 24-year-old won the WBO Oriental bantamweight interim title with a sixth round TKO of Filipino Marvin Tampus on August 17, 2011 and defended it successfully three times, scoring a second-round TKO over Nathan Bolcio, a seventh-round technical decision over rugged Danilo Pena, and a twelve-round unanimous decision over Elmar Francisco.
The Thai has two wins this year, scoring a unanimous eight-round decision over Rey Migreno on May 4 followed by a fifth round TKO of Ricardo Roa on July 6.
Banal will have the added advantage of a three-and-a-half inch difference in height against the stocky Pungluang, not to mention what promises to be a large and supportive hometown crowd.
Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.
