Gerry Penalosa loses to Juan Manuel Lopez! Time to hang up gloves, Gerry

Freddie Roach showed up with a new look. He is sporting what we call the uno haircut. Maybe he wants a lucky charm for his ward Gerry Penalosa to win.

Juan Manuel Lopez is the heavy favorite. He is also visibly the much bigger man. He can bulk up and challenge Edwin Valero someday. He is also younger than Gerry Penalosa, who is now seeking glory at this late stage in his career.

At the onset, Penalosa is outgunned. He is absorbing a lot of 1-2 combinations to the body. His answers are few and far between. Gerry appears ready to fight toe-to-toe, but he is outpunched by a ratio of 8-to-1. There is no way he can win this bout at this pace. While Gerry is being softened by the many blows to the body, JuanMa does not show any signs of tiring.

The 6th round is painful to watch. Only the Floyd-Gatti fight is more one sided than this one. By the 8th, Gerry's face looks like pop corn with caramel. JuanMa has his own welts. But Gerry is not human. No man can absorb 8 rounds of such punishment. He went on to a 9th round, with Roach's warning for Gerry to make or break. Essentially if nothing's changed by this round, Freddie's going to stop the fight.

But the 9th round is more of the same. So Freddie stops the fight after the 9th. JuanMa by TKO.

Meeting old friends II

Facebook reconnected me with friends way back from my elementary school days. The virtual reunion on cyberspace and the photo/video sharing whet the desire to see old friends in person. It is a logistical nightmare when half of the people are abroad and the rest are scattered all over the country. So we do it in small steps. We hold mini-reunions to plot the big one.

As in my reunion with former office mates, it is uncanny to vividly remember how we all looked before and now see the changes that thirty-five plus years can do. To me, reunions are always heartwarming. We had halo-halo over halo-halong kwento. Alas, three hours of chit-chat are never enough to catch up after thirty-five years of being apart.

It was a roller-coaster ride of emotions. For a moment grieving for those who passed away, then sympathizing with romantic heartaches, then feeling good for the big winners. We truly enjoy these mini-reunions because we enjoyed our previous time together, thirty-five plus years ago. It turned out to be so enjoyable that we resolved to search for others from the batch. So this is a shout out for graduates of San Juan Elementary School-1974. Get in touch. See you soon.

A bad practice

"Setting criminals free, long before they have fully served their sentences, sends a chilling message to all law-abiding citizens of this country – that THE STATE CANNOT DISPENSE JUSTICE PROPERLY. It emboldens criminals to commit heinous crimes knowing they can always get executive clemency if they know people in the Board of Pardons and Parole or Malacañang," - Fraternity “brods" of murdered victims Ernesto “Cochise" Bernabe II and his girlfriend Ana Lourdes “Beebom" Castaños in a statement placed in Metro Manila-based newspapers.

The victims, their relatives and friends must be seething at this administration for the spate of pardons and clemencies given by this cute administration to convicted criminals at the earliest possible opportunity. Some quarters say that money matters, citing the case of the dirt-poor rapist who was executed vis-a-vis the filthy-rich congressman rapist who was paroled. Conspiracy theorists point to the coming elections and the resources required to keep this administration in power.

I think there is a reason far deeper than humanitarian for these clemencies. The reason is also much deeper than the conspiratorial and revenue making aspect. In addition to the spite hurdled against Cory for taking a stand against GMA, the release of the foot-soldiers in the Aquino-Galman double murder case prove that compliance to the omerta code pays, whistleblowing does not. The wholesale release of convicts, at this time when there seems to be wholesale commission of graft, embolden the corrupt. This is this administration's way of assuring the crooks and underlings that in the slim chance of conviction, they will be pardoned anyway, if they just follow the code of silence.

The Flash and the Furious

The first of three consecutive Sundays of boxing featuring Filipino champions produced wonderful results. Flyweight champion Nonito 'The Flash' Donaire defanged previously unbeaten Raul ‘La Cobrita’ Martinez over four one-sided rounds this morning. This proves that Donaire's best known win over Vic Darchinyan was not a fluke. The Filipino Flash proved his power again in this fight knocking down his opponent twice in round one, once in round two, and once again in round four. The referee might have prematurely waived off the fight since the Martinez showed signs of recovery in round three and just prior to the last knockdown. Martinez initially appeared to protest but eventually relented and congratulated the winner.
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In 'The Furious' side of the bill, Brian Viloria captured the crown of frequent Filipino tormentor Ulises Solis with a spectacular eleventh round knockout. Viloria started very well in the first five rounds, inflicting cuts over  Solis' both eyes. Solis was deducted points in rounds three and five for low blows. But in the second half of the fight, Solis appeared to outbox Viloria, until Viloria unleashed a well-timed “Hawaiian Punch” that dropped Solis in round eleven. The former champion was not able to get up before the referee made the full count.
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Promising Filipino fighter Denver Cuello won a vacant alphabet soup belt with a fourth round knock-out over his opponent. He earlier scored a knockdown in round three.

Not as good as advertised

My office had our annual team building today. This is my first time to join this summer event in my three years at the organization. I decided to come along because of the fun stories and happy pictures brought back by those who join. The photos of the venue, as posted in their website, were also very inviting. The pricing scheme posted in the website was snobbish (in dollars, and they were boasting of affiliate resorts in other tropical countries). A world class resort in Rizal, this I got to see. This might just as well be a good way to escape the searing summer heat if only for a day.

The mandatory games, trivial as they are, were good for their 15-seconds of laughter. After the games we went to explore the other services and amenities of the resort. The Thunderbird Resort in BInangonan, Rizal is a hotel casino overlooking Laguna de Bay.  It boasts of a private 18-hole golf course and an infinity pool, and of course casinos. Prior to coming over, organzers told us that there were some restrictions like - trunks only, no surfboard shorts for men; no sandals or shorts in the casinos. Ok, we understand. It's world-class after all.

The golf course covers a wide expanse of the hilly area. I don't play golf, and if I do, I don't think I'll be hitting  and following a ball over 7000 yards under the unforgiving sun. I didn't prepare to swim either because I didn't want to bring home wet towels and clothes. And the infinity pool turned to be very finite. The photo on their website was cleverly cropped just off the pool's edge. The majority decided not to swim either. The pool was small for all two busloads of us. It was not as good as advertised.

The rooms were spacious and comfortable enough - for a family of four. If you try to squeeze a busload, they are bound for some discomfort. So I went to the casino where two of my sandal-clad office mates charme the guard to let them in. So much for the shoes only policy. I told my officemates of my theory of malas sa sugal, suerte sa pag-ibig. They all wanted to be both. Those who lost in the slots comforted themselves that they were lucky in love anyway.

As for me I walked away with Php300. How did I do that? I went in with a Php1000.