Pinoy Pride 12: Spoiled by a fake opponent
I always have been a sports fan. I probably got it from my parents and my aunts and uncles. When I was younger, I saw them cheering for Crispa or Toyota and also for boxers like Leonard, Navaratte, Tyson, Penalosa, etc. The love of sports was somehow handed down to me. I keep on track on the latest in sports specially when it comes to Filipino athletes.
The first live boxing card that I ever saw was an ALA promotion way back in 1989. I saw the young Gerry Penalosa, ALA Villamor, Andy Tabanas and other future world challengers in an amazing boxing line-up held at the Cebu Coliseum. 23 years forward, the ALA Promotions is still active in the local boxing circuit.
Their most recent card was held in Bohol in it featured Rey "Boom-Boom" Bautista and other prospects from the ALA Stable. Boom-Boom was supposed to fight a tough Mexican named Genaro Garcia. The hype was great before the fight as ALA gathered many sponsors and they have the backing of a television network. All was supposed to be well until it was found out that another "Genaro Garcia" came to the Philippines. It was not the Genaro Garcia who have battled for world championships but the Genaro Garcia who had a record of 10 wins along with 11 losses. The organizers were decent enough to refund the paying fans and offer the fight card for free. As expected, Bautista easily beat Garcia.
We are lucky that we are in the age of the internet and boxrec. If not, we would have thought that our athletes have beaten some tough opponents when in fact, a patsy with the same name came to our country to earn some quick buck. I guess the Mexican agent thought that Filipinos are that ignorant. If you search Genaro Garcia in boxrec.com, you will actually get 4 boxers with the same name. I hope that nobody will try to put a stunt like that again. The fans deserve better and once again, kudos to ALA promotions.
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