General Admission
Aldeguers as Cebu’s boxing benefactors
By Al S. Mendoza
BY God’s grace, I might still be in Cebu City as you are reading this.
I flew there on Friday on board PAL to cover the Pinoy Pride 26 on Saturday (June 21), a regular boxing fare featuring Filipino fighters against Mexicans.
It’s been nurtured for years now by the father-and-son tandem of Tony and Michael Aldeguer, whose ALA Boxing Promotions has remained as the country’s No. 1 backer for big-dreaming Filipino boxers.
Tony Aldeguer started it all in the Seventies – collecting aspiring boxers into his stable with his son Michael a mere toddler then.
The beauty of it all is, Tony spends for everything that a boxer needs, from training to board and lodging.
Tony has built a house in Cebu exclusively for use by his boxers – for free.
And then this: Tony gets nothing from his stable of boxers, not even a single cent once a boxer starts hitting the big time.
In short, he is no Bob Arum, the American promoter of Manny Pacquiao.
At 80-plus or something, Arum still makes a killing at the tills every time he puts up a boxing card.
Tony Aldeguer merely finds happiness and fulfillment in seeing his wards achieve their dreams in the ring.
How many are like him?
I know of no one that even comes close to his boxing philanthropy.
Glad I am extremely that Michael has taken after the father.
And now to the just-ended NBA Finals.
Why did Miami Heat lose their crown of two years?
The Heat got dethroned because of two things.
One, their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh didn’t click this time.
Only James produced monster games in the Spurs’ 4-1 victory in the best-of-seven playoffs.
Two, the Spurs did not only have a Big Three in Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker but a Big Five as well in Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, Boris Diaw and Kawhi Leonard.
And this one wasn’t known by many: The San Antonio Spurs were the favorites in the series.
And then this, too: Gregg Popovich proved once more that he is one of the best coaches in the world today.
A coach is actually good if he can shuffle his stars so well to produce quality wins – like Popovich.
In all of San Antonio’s four victories, the Spurs won by 15 points or more in each of them.
In contrast, Miami won by a measly two points 98-96 when the Heat snatched Game 2.
To do that, James had to fire 35 points. When he scored below 30 points in the other four games, San Antonio won by margins of 15 in Game 1, 19 in Game 3, 21 in Game 4 and 17 in Game 5.
It was San Antonio’s fifth NBA title since 1999 as the Spurs deflected Miami’s bid of a “three-peat,” stopping coach Erik Spoelstra’s bid of winning three of Miami’s four straight Finals appearances.
If only for that alone, Spoelstra, the first Fil-Am to ever coach in the NBA (his mother is from San Pablo, Laguna) has nothing to be ashamed of.
Here’s to Spoelstra, dugong Pinoy!
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