City sponsors boxing showdown to highlight gov's birthday
By Bong Pedalino
Maasin City (November 19) -- A professional and amateur boxing showdown will be held here tomorrow, November 20, at the city gym to honor the birthday celebration of Gov. Damian Mercado which will be on November 24.
According to newsman Zaldy Olita, writing in the weekly newsletter "Maasin City in Action", City Mayor Maloney Samaco stressed that the upcoming pugnacious bouts are sanctioned as a championship fight by the Philippine Boxing Federation (PBF).
Featured in the main event will be the new-found pride of Maasin City in the person of Dennis Aguelo, a native of barangay Matin-ao, and he will trade fists with Tiny Tyson from Cagayan De Oro City for the Super Bantamweight division crown for ten rounds.
Mayor Samaco, chair of the city Sports Council, had hoped the city can develop another promising talent in boxing to follow the footsteps of the late Alex Aroy.
He expressed confidence Aguelo, who began his amateur boxing career under the tutelage of the city sports council, will be victorious in this title fight.
When he turned professional, Aguelo was trained in Cebu, and matchmaker Willy Flores attested to his potential with a string of successive victories in the ring.
Two other boxers will sweat it out in the undercard during the Aguelo-Tyson fight, and ten amateur bouts will be fought by players coming from this city against those coming from Matalom and Bato, Leyte.
Excellence in sports has been one of the 13-point agenda being pushed under the administration of Mayor Samaco, and the conduct of professional or amateur boxing competitions has become an annual spectacle.
And the boxing competition is being timed to coincide with certain events, like the provincial anniversary, charter day or city fiesta, and including the birthday bash of Gov. Mercado, who will turn 50-something on November 24. (PIA-Southern Leyte) [top]
