Big-time boxing goes to Davao City when the Global Boxing Organization holds the GBO Asia Pacific Championship Caravan (GASPAC) via RED Boxing International (RBI) sometime after the mid-term elections in May.
Folks, some column pieces ago this deadline beater introduced to you the entry of GBO, the newest boxing governing body based in Los Angeles, California, in the Philippine sports scene.
Today be glad that Davao City has been selected to host the launching of the 17-stage GASPAC that will tour the archipelago’s 17 regional centers to stage championship boxing in fourteen weight divisions, including whenever possible, the heavyweight division.
Recall that it was in 1975 when the Thrilla in Manila was held during the Marcos martial law years where the Philippines became the world’s focal point for several months, eventually transforming the country as a sports-tourism mecca in this part of the world.
For today’s sports and boxing fanatics who were born only later in the eighties, the Thrilla…was the best-action packed title bout where two of the world’s acclaimed greatest ring gladiators gave their best for which the Association of Boxing Writers in America adjudged it as the Fight of the Century.
The talkative legendary champion Muhammad Ali, nicknamed the Louisville Lip because of his fancy to predict the round he would KO his opponents, found Smokin’ Joe Frazier, himself a two-time champion, a tough nut to crack.
After fourteen grueling toe-toe to rounds, Ali was declared winner via TKO over Frazier who defeated him earlier in a 1971 battle at the Madison square Garden in New York City.
Promoted by the afro-haired Don King, whose initial herculean effort became the template for bigger heavyweight boxing extravaganza, RBI and GBO, in partnership with the Games and Amusements Board, want to approximate the 1975 Thrilla in Manila by conceptualizing such a big event.
The selection of Davao City as the site of the “Thrilla in Davao” is intended similarly to put focus on Davao City as the sports-tourism mecca in Mindanao and this part of Asia.
Whether we like it or not, Davao City is now the center of attention in commerce and trade, tourism and development including the rise of a new mindset, not only because the President hails from this southern city but due more to the fact that the island’s tag as the “Land of Promise” is now slowly but surely being fulfilled.
Note also that after the Thrilla…Iron Mike Tyson, Don King’s protégé, elevated the heavyweight diadem to higher heights, including helping raise the purses for boxers in other divisions in general.
More than this, RBI and GBO via GASPAC want to create a boxing renaissance in the country where hordes of potential world champions are just waiting to be tapped and be given the opportunity.
Let’s face it. The retirement of 8-division champion Manny Pacquiao is imminent. We need to be forward-thinking.
What Red Boxing and GBO is doing is to pave the way for aspiring but talented Filipino boxers who will follow the heroic footsteps of Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Donnie Nietes, Milan Melindo, et al.
This is not to mention what former world champions Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, Rene Barrientos, Rolando Navarrete etc., have done to carve a name for themselves and for the world to recognize their individual feats.
RED Boxing chair Reynaldo Rodis, a son-in-law of the revered late promoter Doc Antonio Almirante, will be inviting Don King to be present during the “Thrilla in Davao” through his son Cacoi, RBI President and CEO, who is based in Los Angeles area and who is regularly promoting bouts under the GBO aegis in California.
That’s it. Watch out for the Thrilla in Davao come May 25. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) 1 Peter 4: 18: “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
