Fight night, I love it.
Took an Uber an hour away from Eastwood and arrived at the Mall of Asia, a mall that was insanely big. It had a children's ferris wheel in it, enough said right there.
The pool of boxers here in the Philippines is massive, everyone wants to be the next Pacquiao, so it was no surprise at just how good the fights were tonight. They were intense, packed with crazy combos and mad hard hits. How they go about showcasing their fighters and presenting their pro fights though is exactly how Korea does it and that's where they need to change things.
Pro fights showcased in the centre of a mall?! Sounds so Korean.
Why buy a ticket and help fund the sport when you can just lean over the mall railing and catch a free show? Exactly. Korea often does the exact same thing and it drives me bonkers. There is an interest in boxing, both in Korea and the Philippines, but I feel like posing these "free shows" doesn't help the sport and it only helps further support and enforce the whole "starving athlete" norm. It costs a lot to put on a boxing tournament -- the equipment rental, space rental, paying of those involved like the ringside doctor, judges and refs, etc. I feel like the actual boxer fighting always gets the bottom of the pot, the leftover money, and it's usually nothing much. I don't know how these promotors hosted these tournaments making money. Perhaps it's just a promo thing, an expected cost of doing business.
In Canada I'm in a pool of female mini flyweights consisting of not even double digit numbers yet here in the Philippines I feel like one in a million. Today I teased this one female fighter for being so small. I joked and told her my arms were the size of her legs. The female fighters here may be small but I feel like the numbers here are so much higher than in Canada because boxing is such a big part of their culture. I still find myself in shock at how many female fighters I see coming out for training at Elorde. Today us females outnumbered the guys. However one thing I've noticed though is there is a lack of female coaches. There are no female coaches at my club, a club that has an estimated 300 members.
As for the fights, like I mentioned above, they were impressive. There were 14 fights on the fight card so it was a long night of fighting action. It started at 5pm and ended at roughly 9:30pm.
My Filipino buddy showed up at the fights, many of his teammates from his boxing club were fighting, so he got me down closer to the ring to enjoy the fights. There was one female bout on the fight card and it ended in the first minute of the first round. These two female fighters stepped into the ring. One was tall, lean, and looking focused. The other was cute and smiley, sporting a sports bra while her opponent wore a full tank top. At the sound of the round bell ringing, the fight started and that cute little boxer with the sports bra instantly turned into this focused warrior. She unleashed a series of combos on her opponent, working the body and head, and just like that the ref called the fight. TKO in the first round.
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