The Sporting News

Our volleyball team spent Saturday afternoon at a tournament at a local Catholic school, where the most entertaining feature (besides our two wins) were the full color banners dedicated to the priest who founded the school, surrounded by boys, and his motto: "It is enough that you are young for me to love you." You just couldn't get that kind of quality irony in the States.

Saturday night was a real treat for me. A friend of boxing trainer Terry Mogg brought us to see his fighter Gretchen "Chen Chen" Abaniel win the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) Asia Pacific minimum-weight crown at Elorde Gym in Sucat.

(This picture is not from last night's fight--next time I'm bringing my camera--but from last April via PhilBoxing.com's Dong Secuya. But posts are less fun without pictures, and it is a great shot of Gretchen on the left.)

It was a night reminiscent of the West End Gym fundraisers in Lowell, Massachusetts, and made me miss the whole crowd there all the more. But it also encourages me that I am going to find a way to train again (for my own fitness and enjoyment only) and get involved in the boxing scene here, cheering on girls like Gretchen. Terry is an interesting guy--an Australian with a full time job here in the Philippines, but whose real passion is boxing and helping the local kids, especially female fighters, develop their talents. He's the local Arthur Ramalho or Dave Ortiz! Shout out to the West End Gym!