Pounding The Keyboard

Last Sunday, December 6, my brother, a brother-in-law and a cousin, for want of better things to do, dragged me to Carmona, Cavite, the home of San Lazaro Leisure Club, the foremost racetrack in the Philippines today. The racetrack had been there for many years now but it was only our third time to the place. We arrived at around one thirty in the afternoon and quickly found out that the food there remained priced exorbitantly. The club was packed with not only the racing program-wielding kareristas but also with their families (their wives and their small children). It was the day of Presidential Gold Cup, the biggest and most prestigious event in Philippine horseracing—the prize money for the winner was a whopping two and a half millions pesos, and one of the horses running in that event was owned by the boss of my brother-in-law. The Presidential Gold Cup ran at around five in the afternoon and was won by a superhorse named Don Enrico, the favorite horse in the race, beating ...

"Manny picked a wrong man to fight for a seventh wold championship..." ---Miguel Cotto Manny Pacquiao keeps enthralling not only the Filipino people but also the whole world. Who would’ve thought that this pugilist who began fighting at 106 lbs more than a decade ago would grab a welterweigth (141-147 lbs) title in style? Yesterday, he demolished Miguel Cotto—said to be one of the finest welterweight fighters to grace the sport—in an awe-inspiring fashion that made his fellow Pinoys breathless and proud. At the packed moviehouse where we watched the thoroughly exciting –at least up to the eight round; Cotto did nothing but run and backpedal at the later rounds—fight, the audience would scream and shriek with delight with every landed Pacquiao punch while there’d always be a collective nervous gasp whenever Cotto would connect. We arrived at the mall at nine in the morning and the fight ended at past two in the afternoon (the supporting bouts were quit...

"Pacquiao's gonna run..." ---Floyd Mayweather Sr., Hatton's trainer After 349, 201, 400 commercials (yes, I counted all of it), greedy GMA 7, the Kabulsa, er, the Kapuso station, in cahoots with Solar Entertainment, finally aired the much awaited Pacquiao-Hatton fight. Pacman handily won the fight. The encounter's billed as The Battle Of East And West but I thought, after hitting the canvas for the third time in just two rounds, Hatton will go straight to the North, that is, the Manila North Cemetery. The Pacman was once again spectacularly awesome in the fight. Hatton didn’t know where the punches pummeling him were coming. The killer punch that finally sent Hatton to groggy-land was truly devastating. It was probably the left hook of the year . You can get high by just watching it, especially in slo-mo. Hatton’s brain seemed to stop even before that punch could land on his face. It’s obvious now that Pacquiao is more than ready to meet Mayweather, ...