Go watch the fight.
Boxing afficionados need not worry about their safety when they watch Saturday night’s Pinoy Pride 22: The Revenge at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
Alfred Portenschlager, the hotel’s general manager, said engineers have inspected the hotel building and declared it “structurally sound and safe.”
“I want to reassure that we have done the utmost we can in order to tell the people coming to this fight that this hotel has been declared safe to operate,” said Portenschlager in the fight card’s press conference at the Agean Room.
Portenschlager said the hotel sustained just minor aesthetic damage which didn’t affect the building’s structural integrity.
“The building suffered some hairline cracks in several locations especially on some of the walls. However, these cracks are non-structural and could be easily repaired by either simply epoxy injection or cement plaster,” shared Portenschlager.
He added restaurants in the hotel have operated and the hotel rooms “have been occupied more than ever.”
Portenschlager said he himself is expecting a slam-bang action when ALA Gym’s Genesis Servania dukes it out with the trash-talking Rafael Concepcion.
“Personally, I promise I will be there at the fight. I’m looking forward to it. And a little bit on the humorous note, I’m hoping that our fighters will rock it more than the earthquake has ever rocked Cebu in the past,” Portenschlager said.
Dennis Cañete, Vice President of ALA Promotions, admitted that ticket sales have been affected by the Oct. 15 7.2-magnitude earthquake.
“It was really bad in the previous weeks but it started to pick up a few days before the fight,” Cañete said.