Philippine Sports News and Updates

The Philippine boxing team will test its readiness for the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games when it competes in the 1st AIBA China Open International Boxing Championship slated from April 3 to 12 in Guiyang, Guizhou province.

Members of the team are light flyweight Gerson Nietes , flyweight Rey Saludar, bantamweight Aston Francis Palicte, featherweight Charly Suarez, lightweight Jameboy Vicera, light welterweight Mark John Rey Melligen and welterweight Wilfredo Lopez.

"We’re very hopeful that with this young team, we can gauge our strength for the coming Asian Games," said Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) executive director Ed Picson, who will accompany the RP boxers together with coaches Nolito Velasco and Ronald Chavez.

"We also have a string of other tournaments and training camps planned for the year to ensure that our boxers are prepared for Guangzhou," added Picson.

The seven-member Philippine team, being supported by Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) chairman Manny V. Pangilinan and ABAP president Ricky Vargas, leaves on Saturday.

MANILA, Philippines - Filipina Ana Julaton, bleeding heavily from both eyes, fought a gallant fight yesterday but fell way too short against the more experienced Lisa Brown of Canada, and lost her bid for a third world title at the Casa Roma in Ontario.

Julaton, a kungfu and taekwondo blackbelter, gave everything she had and gamely fought despite two nasty cuts around her eyes, allowing the 39-year-old Brown to post a unanimous decision and win the vacant WBA super bantamweight crown.

The three judges scored it 99-92, 99-91 and 100-90 all in favor of Brown, a three-time world champion who is 10 years older than Julaton.

Julaton failed to exploit her three-inch height advantage, and Brown found her defense too easy to penetrate. But the Filipina, her white tank top almost red at the end of the fight, had nothing to be ashamed of.

Like a true sportsman, Julaton clapped her hands when the ring announcer declared Brown the winner. They hugged and whispered closely to each other’s ears, and Brown was in tears as she held on to the belt.

Brown, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago but grew up in Canada, improved her ring record to 17 wins, four defeats and three draws, while Julaton, the former WBO and IBF champion, fell to 6-2-1.

Julaton’s father, Cesar, was among those who watched the fight live at the GMA-7 headquarters in Quezon City. He said he was proud of her daughter’s performance, considering that she fought Brown on her own turf.

MANILA, Philippines – It doesn’t matter who wins between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley on May 1 as long as Manny Pacquiao keeps fighting, according to a world heavyweight champ.

James Toney, the reigning International Boxing Association (IBA) heavyweight titlist, said neither Mayweather nor Mosley would dare mess with the Filipino boxing star in his peak.

“They aren’t f--king with Pacquiao right now, man,” Toney told Percy Crawford of FightHype.com while referring to Mayweather and Mosley.

Mayweather and Mosley will be slugging it out on May 1 for the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title.

Toney, however, thinks the two pound-for-pound contenders are no better than World Boxing Organization (WBO) title holder Pacquiao.

“Pacquiao's on fire,” he said in the report posted on FightHype.com. “Mayweather gives angles but not the odd and awkward angles that Pacquiao gives. As far as work rate and activity, forget about it.”

Toney said Pacquiao’s edge over his opponents is the volume of punches he can throw in a fight.