Scrapped

Prince Albert Pagara’s scheduled fight against Jakarta, Indonesia’s Ruben Manakane in front of his fellow Southern Leytenos will no longer materialize after promoters of the Boxing Idol 2 fight card decided to forego the event, which was supposed to take place either late this month or early February at the Maasin City Gym in Maasin City.

Dennis Cañete of the ALA Boxing Promotions relayed to Cebu Daily News via text message yesterday that the event, which was to have been co-presented by ABS-CBN Studio 23 and the ALA Boxing Promotions, will no longer be held in Maasin City and that Pagara will no longer fight in the Boxing Idol 2 card.

“We are planning to move the Boxing Idol to Manila for the next episode tentatively set this March. We will consider Maasin in the future,” Cañete said. “We are still pushing through with a fight for Prince Pagara but not in (Boxing) Idol.”

The 19-year-old Pagara, who holds a perfect professional record of 17 wins with 12 knockouts and no losses, is the younger brother of WBO International Junior Welterweight Champion Jason Pagara. The siblings are natives of Lib-og, Maasin City.

Maasin City Administrator Atty. Feorillo “Bom-Bom” Demeterio, for his part, said that they haven’t received official word from the ALA camp regarding the scrapping of the event in Maasin.

“The last time we discussed Boxing Idol last December, we told ALA (Antonio L. Aldeguer) Maasin is ready to host anytime,” said Demeterio. “Worried tingali sila sa ticket sales after the Yolanda typhoon although we received no official word yet from ALA,” he added.

Demeterio also said he heard of a scheduled fight of Pagara against a yet-to-be-named opponent tentatively set on the third week of February. “Tune-up fight ra,” said Demeterio.

Pagara was supposed to take on Manakane in the main draw of the twin fightcard, which was to feature the bout between undefeated fighter Juren Labordo of Bacolod City and Demsey Manufoe of Surakarta, Indonesia.

Cañete, though, didn’t specify if the same set of fighters except for Pagara will star in the next episode of Boxing Idol.

The first part of this promotion was held last Aug. 24, 2013 and featured ALA Gym’s Melvin Gumban and Mark Vincent Bernaldez at the Escalante City Stadium in Escalante City, Negros Occidental.