Villanueva withdraws fom Pinoy Pride 9 boxing card
FILIPINO RING prospect Arthur Villanueva has pulled out of the highly anticipated mega boxing card Pinoy Pride 9 of ALA Promotions and ABS-CBN Sports due to a hand injury.
The undefeated super flyweight fighter from Bacolod City accidentally wounded his left middle finger during lunch yesterday, cutting a major vein in his hand.
He was rushed to the Corazon Locsin-Montelibano Memorial Hospital and was attended to immediately as his hand was bleeding. He is currently checked in at the said provincial hospital as of press time.
Villanueva was scheduled to face his first test against a foreign opponent in Kenyan Shaabani Madilu in front of an expected full coliseum in his home city of Bacolod.
ALA Promotions will soon announce the replacement of Villanueva. Madilu of Kenya is scheduled to arrive the City of Smiles on Tuesday and will immediately face the media for an official press conference.
The Pinoy Pride 9 is slated Oct. 8 at the St. La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod City. It will be higlighted by the WBO light flyweight championship match between Filipino challenger Donnie “Ahas” Nietes and defending champion Mexican Ramon Garcia.
Meanwhile, ALA Boxing Promotions will be having its first pay-per-view in Cebu for the said event.
Nietes’ quest to carve history by becoming one of the two-division world champions in the country against Garcia will be shown live on Sky Cable and at SM City Cebu Cinema 1 straight from the fight’s venue.
ALA Boxing Promotions president Michael Aldeguer decided to have the pay-per-view only here in Cebu as a dry run for a bigger and grander plan.
“It will surely bring the country’s boxing scene into the next level,” said Aldeguer. “We want to make this often. Actually, this is the second time that a fight inside the country will be shown pay-per-view. The first one was the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar Larios fight. We want to share this historic moment to everyone.”
Aldeguer also said this is in preparation of a grander plan of ALA, which is the Pinoy Pride US tour.
“This is also as a preparation for the Pinoy Pride US tour so that Filipino boxing fans can watch the upcoming fights live.”
A planned US and international tour of the Pinoy Pride series is expected to happen in 2013 or 2014.
Also to be featured on this maiden pay-per-view event is the WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight championship between AJ “Bazooka” Banal against Mexican knockout artist Mario “Macas” Briones. /CORRESPONDENT DALE ROSAL.
