Saturday, June 23, 2012

Masquerade of Greed and Fraud: RIP Boxing?

by: Atty. Miguel Cleofas Asuten

The scoring travesty in boxing manipulated by three judges in Las Vegas, Nevada between Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley last June 9, 2012 has been gaining a world-wide uproar addressed to sports authorities for the reversal of the judges’ ruling and their eventual punishment such as early retirement or banishment for life in judging future boxing bouts.

One of the “three blind mice,” Duane Ford admitted in a recent interview by Jim Lampley in his “The Fight Game” show that the first six rounds of the fight went to Pacquiao but Bradley tired Pacquiao in later rounds. Ford continued his bewildering statement adding insult to injury that “Pacquiao could have finished Bradley off in the fourth round. xxx He was not the Manny Pacquiao I have judged before.” If Pacman got the first six rounds, why Ford did not know a very basic arithmetic that 6 rounds + 6 rounds = 12 rounds? The plain conclusion of the boxing bout could have been and at the very least, a draw. Ford clearly set his own standard by judging Pacquiao as his previous fights that could have easily led to Bradley’s only knockout loss of his career. With more reason that Ford should be investigated if this is his personal standard and be stripped off of his tarnished license as a boxing judge. The sport of boxing can never linger in the shadow of incompetent and should I say, corrupt boxing judges only to ruin the integrity and popularity of the sport. More dubious to me was the unanimous scoring of the “three blind mice” in the 7th round as all taken by Bradley when Pacquiao outpunched Bradley, 27-11 in that round. Is this the outcome’s conspiracy or prophecy?

Although personally as boxing fanatic, I am in favor of investigation surrounding the circumstances declaring Bradley as the undeserving and masquerading winner, I cannot further agree that such investigation be conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). What could we expect if NSAC does the investigation against its own incompetent and corrupt employees? WBO President Francisco Varcarcel entered the scene by ordering NSAC the review of the boxing video with early pronouncement that the fight was really close and difficult to judge. What a posture of sanctioning organization head who wants to manipulate again the upcoming investigation results! How could the WBO President say “review” when he already concluded that the fight was so close and difficult to judge? How come that the fight turned out to be close when more than 90% of all world sport writers, analysts and websites scored the fight with Pacquiao as the runaway winner? How come that the fight was difficult to judge when only several factors are to be considered in scoring boxing: ring generalship or dominance, aggressiveness, fighting style and what more? Punches? Pacquiao dominated the boxing statistics for that particular bout as it appears in CompuBox. What expert eyes these judges are saying that the ordinary eyes could not have seen? Well yes! We saw that crime of robbery in a broad daylight, in flagrante delicto, against a Philippine Congressman. True judges! This is not American Idol with the outcome being dictated by thrilled, serenaded or flirted audience. This is boxing and unfortunately the results are falsely tailored by such dubbed “experts”?

Investigation per se without rectification of the boxing results is a complete stupidity. The NSAC recommendation that will come out later can never make any turning point in boxing history but the usual and shameful rematch of fighters. And to Pacquiao, it will not make him anything good but his acceptance of the rematch is only sanctioning and dignifying the boulevard of fraud in boxing. Even if it happens, I will never watch Pacquiao doing the World Puppet Show of Bob Arum, the king of folly, most historic manipulator and world-renowned Pontius Pilate of the sport. If I were Pacquiao, I would rather chase arch nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth match, even if unpopular, and prove to the world that he really deserved the victory last November 2011 or pursue negotiations with Floyd “Money” Mayweather who, I think, may now accede after all the prison and family issues that pulverized his character as a boxing superstar of Uncle Sam’s America.

Ordering rematch between Pacquiao and Bradley is a plain idiocy to figure out. Why push through with the rematch when Pacman was the clear winner in the eyes of millions or even billions of people around the world? The best way to revitalize boxing as a sport is to get rid of NSAC and these sanctioning bodies like WBO, WBC, IBF, etc. There must be an independent world boxing commission that will man boxing fights and protect the integrity of boxing results unlike now that they can easily manipulate the outcome because of speaking money($). For now, thanks to Sens. McCain and Reid for their efforts to create a federal boxing commission.

Speaking of financial equilibrium, Pacquiao has been the biggest milking cow and piggy bank of Top Rank for several years and Bob Arum could not agree less when dealing with money, more money or most money. Well, it seems that Arum wanted Manny to lose so he can give Manny less. Unfortunately, Pacman still has something to prove in boxing. What an astute promoter in Arum fielding his own Top Rank scorer with Bradley in score card as the manhandled winner. Oh My Arum! It appears now that NSAC, WBO and Top Rank fashioned the sweet conspiracy against God-renewed Pacquiao in the Sin City of Vegas?

Nevertheless, Filipinos are still very proud that one of the greatest boxers of all time happened to be with the same citizenship as ours. We are indebted that our generation witnessed and still witnessing Manny Pacquiao on high definition videos and digital cameras, live coverage of boxing matches on pay per views, LED televisions, countless articles on websites and commentaries on print and broadcast media. The first 8-division boxing champion should now chase the best boxing match of his career and thereafter hang his boxing gloves for good. From then on Pacquiao, no more fraud. No more Arums. Greed and fraud have no place in the sport of boxing because if they do exist, we can simply say, “RIP Boxing”. @mikeasuten, twitter.com

Thursday, June 21, 2012

WBO says Pacquiao beat Bradley


The special five-man panel tasked by World Boxing Organization (WBO) president Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel to review the controversial Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley WBO welterweight title fight has reached the conclusion that the Filipino did indeed win the June 9 bout.

According to RingTV, all five members of the panel reviewed the bout and all scored it in favor of the Filipino ring icon. Two judges scored it 117-111, while the other three scored it 118-110, 116-112, and 115-113.

Bradley won Pacquiao's welterweight belt via a split decision, with two judges scoring it 115-113 for the American and a third scoring it 115-113 for Pacquiao. The decision sparked massive outrage within the boxing community and even had two United States senators pushing for the creation of a national boxing commission to regulate the sport, prompting Valcarcel to order a review.

The panel's findings generally reflect the sentiment of boxing observers who were at ringside, almost all of whom had Pacquiao winning by various margins. Top Rank head Bob Arum, who promotes both fighters and who called for an investigation of the bout, called the findings a "Solomon-like conclusion".
Despite the panel's findings, WBO rules cannot allow the decision to be overturned. The most the boxing body can do, according to Valcarcel, is to order a rematch, something Arum has recently said he is no longer keen on doing.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Top 10 Asian universities of 2012

Five Philippine universities placed in the top 300 universities in Asia, according to the 2012 rankings of the international research organization Quacquarelli Symmonds Intelligence Unit (QSIU).
 
University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City remains the best university in the country as it ranked 68th in the list, followed by the Ateneo de Manila University which ranked 86th.
 
The De La Salle University landed on the 142nd spot while the University of Santo Tomas ranked 148th.
 
The University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, which placed 251st to 300th, made it to the list for the first time.
 
The Davao university placed 251st to 300th, with no specific rank, because only the top 150 Asian universities were published in rank order. The next 50 were in ranges of ten while the last 100 universities were in ranges of fifty.
 
The four Philippine universities all dropped from their rankings last year. In 2011, UP ranked 62nd; ADMU, 65th; UST, 104th; and DLSU, 107th.
 
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology remains on top of the list for two years running.
 
On the other hand, The National University of Singapore, formerly third place in 2011, beats the University of Hong Kong on second place. The University of Hong Kong is now on third place.
 
The Seoul National University ranked fourth followed by the Chinese University of Hong Kong on fifth.
 
According to QSIU, it ranks the universities based on these indicators: 30 percent academic reputation from global survey, 30 percent papers per faculty and citations per paper, 20 percent faculty student ratio, 10 percent employer reputation from global survey, and 10 percent proportion of international faculty and students and proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students.
 
The QSIU has not released its world rankings yet for 2012.
 
Top 10 Asian universities of 2012 by QSIU:
1. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
2. National University of Singapore
3. University of Hong Kong
4. Seoul National University
5. Chinese University of Hong Kong
6. Peking University
7. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
8. University of Tokyo
9. Pohang University of Science and Technology
10. Kyoto University

PCSO Lotto Result June 5 - June 14, 2012


June 14, 2012 Lotto Results


Super Lotto 6/49
44-06-22-33-36-30
Jackpot Prize: Php 16,000,000.00

Lotto 6/42 Draw
37-20-02-30-22-35
Jackpot Prize: Php 20,027,890.80

6D Six Digit
9-3-5-2-9-4

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 4-8-2
4:00 pm: 4-4-7
9:00 pm: 7-8-8

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 31-08
4pm: 17-14
9pm: 28-01


Grand Lotto 6/55
19-26-53-50-34-22
Jackpot Prize: Php 82,782,158.40
No Winner

Mega Lotto 6/45
16-38-14-17-24-21
Jackpot Prize: Php 60,428,377.80
No Winner

Four Digit 4D
1-6-5-4

Swertres 3 Lotto
11:00 am: 5-9-3
4:00 pm: 5-1-7
9:00 pm: 1-1-9

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 14-17
4pm: 17-28
9pm: 31-04


Super Lotto 6/49
01-46-29-41-17-06
Jackpot Prize: Php 16,000,000.00
No Winner

Lotto 6/42 Draw
06-27-09-36-16-23
Jackpot Prize: Php 16,213,681.80
Winner

6D Six Digit
0-8-8-9-5-4

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 8-3-1
4:00 pm: 3-6-7
9:00 pm: 7-6-9

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 17-08
4pm: 09-06
9pm: 01-04

Grand Lotto 6/55
20-55-33-22-12-31
Jackpot Prize: Php 77,174,730.00
No Winner

Mega Lotto 6/45
41-12-36-32-18-07
Jackpot Prize: Php 55,342,182.60
No Winner

Four Digit 4D
6-0-1-3

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 8-8-1
4:00 pm: 4-4-1
9:00 pm: 0-1-3

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 05-25
4pm: 27-19
9pm: 13-03

June 10, 2012 Lotto Results


Super Lotto 6/49
30-41-48-03-11-23
Jackpot Prize: Php 16,000,000.00
No Winner

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 9-6-7
4:00 pm: 0-0-6
9:00 pm: 3-8-3

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 20-09
4pm: 24-15
9pm: 16-18


Grand Lotto 6/55
24-28-52-27-40-20
Jackpot Prize of Php 71,547,764.40
No Winner

Lotto 6/42 Draw
41-17-29-30-33-18
Jackpot Prize: Php 12,655,371.60
No Winner

6D Six Digit
5-3-4-5-4-5

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 2-0-0
4:00 pm: 5-9-0
9:00 pm: 0-7-1

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 05-09
4pm: 25-04
9pm: 02-26


Mega Lotto 6/45
12-34-15-11-19-36
Jackpot Prize: Php 50,192,634.60
No Winner

Four Digit 4D
7-7-1-8

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 0-1-5
4:00 pm: 1-9-2
9:00 pm: 5-7-3

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 28-30
4pm: 30-29
9pm: 23-31


Super Lotto 6/49
06-49-32-03-48-14
Jackpot Prize: Php 87,697,688.40

Lotto 6/42 Draw
06-10-21-30-22-33
Jackpot Prize: Php 9,170,456.40

6D Six Digit
2-0-8-8-8-1

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 3-7-4
4:00 pm: 3-6-6
9:00 pm: 9-9-0

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 28-05
4pm: 31-15
9pm: 17-09


Grand Lotto 6/55
53-15-09-52-17-21
Jackpot Prize: Php 64,984,028.40
No Winner

Mega Lotto 6/45
45-32-40-28-34-12
Jackpot Prize: Php 44,161,727.40
No Winner

Four Digit 4D
3-9-0-0

Swertres 3 Lotto
11:00 am: 3-7-4
4:00 pm: 1-7-7
9:00 pm: 6-9-1

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 01-02
4pm: 02-11
9pm: 01-07


Super Lotto 6/49
10-30-42-12-48-34
Jackpot Prize: Php 81,114,490.80
No Winner

Lotto 6/42 Draw
20-33-28-13-31-29
Jackpot Prize: Php 6,146,177.40
No Winner

6D Six Digit
2-0-8-7-7-0

Swertres 3 Digit
11:00 am: 5-8-5
4:00 pm: 6-2-6
9:00 pm: 5-1-4

Two Digit EZ2 Lotto
11am: 24-20
4pm: 25-05
9pm: 31-02