Transforming vision into reality

by Dong Secuya of Philboxing.com

ALA Promotions International President and CEO Michael Aldeguer (centre) flanked by his prized wards Donnie “Ahas” Nietes and “Prince” Albert Pagara. (DONG SECUYA)

CEBU CITY – Five years ago, Michael Aldeguer, the dashing son of Cebu boxing patron Antonio L. Aldeguer, who then had just took over the helm of ALA Promotions, invited a few Cebu-based media to a small resto-bar located in the uptown area of the city.

In an informal and intimate discussion over food and drinks, Michael laid down his plans on what he wants to accomplish with his promotional outfit in the next five years. In a nutshell, Michael wanted to promote shows all over the Philippines and then go international and eventually put shows in the United States, the boxing mecca of the world, a feat that no Philippine promoter or Asian promoter for that matter, had accomplished.

Since then, ALA Promotions has dominated the Philippine boxing landscape with its promotions which include the ALA-Cobra joint amateur-professional cards held in small towns in the Visayas and Mindanao, the ‘Idol’ shows that attempted to develop local boxing heroes and the highly successful ‘Pinoy Pride’ series which Michael, in partnership with ABS-CBN TV network, had its maiden show on Oct. 30, 2011.

To date there were already 32 ‘Pinoy Pride’ editions filling up the Philippines’ biggest arenas in Manila, Cebu, Bacolod and Davao with two of its shows held in Dubai, UAE. ‘Pinoy Pride’ also established a consistent high TV ratings for its shows besting some of the best Sunday morning shows in the Philippines.

Last Aug. 17, at the Montebello Villa Garden Hotel, a couple of blocks away from the resto-bar where Michael invited the journalists five years earlier, the young Aldeguer presided the press conference announcing ALA Promotions’ initial promotional event in the United States on Oct. 17 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California to be headlined by the Philippines’ longest reigning world champion Donnie Nietes, obviously the culmination of Michael’s five year plan and a milestone for Philippine boxing.

After the maiden StubHub show, Aldeguer has calendared small shows in the coming months in San Diego, Pomona and San Mateo, all in California, and then return to StubHub Center again for a bigger show.

Asked what is his rationale of trying to promote boxing events in the US where the world’s biggest boxing promotional companies are based, Michael said he’s not competing with the big guys. “I don’t see it that way,” Michael said. “They ask me why I go to the big ocean and fight the big fishes out there. Well, I don’t see it that way.”

The younger Aldeguer, in fact, has a clear perspective of the US boxing market and its demographics and is banking on a large ethnic Filipino community estimated to be more than 4 million, the second largest Asian American group in the United States, a third of which are living in California.

“The Philippines alone has its own market in the US,” Michael said who in partnership with TFC, ABS-CBN’s network arm in the United States who regularly hold concerts inside the US with record attendances, wants to tap that market for the boxing events.

Additionally, putting up shows in the US has the advantage of making the big fights easier since it’s a neutral ground and closer to many of the prospective opponents mainly Mexicans or Latin Americans.

Although it seems easy for Michael to have done such a feat, it’s not all smooth and rosy. For one, just obtaining a US promotional license took several years to make in what Michael described as ‘painstaking.’ Also there are organizational problems. But Michael had to go through all of it in order for his vision to be realized.

We’ve heard that Michael has a new 10-year plan in place which include shows all over the Middle East and Europe. We’re waiting for another invite from him to disclose it to us over food and drinks in some dimly lit nook around the city.