ALA calls Magsayo’s bluff

It’s easy to paint ALA Promotions as the villain in the story, given the toxic reputation of some promoters but let’s not forget that when Cebu boxing was nothing, it was ALA Promotions that kept it alive.

At the height of Mark Magsayo’s controversial bolting from ALA Promotions, the wife of the boxer, who is now his manager, dared ALA Promotions to show a contract between the two boxers to prove that the Boholano is still under the Cebuano outfit.

Remember, Magsayo’s camp claims both the managerial and promotional contracts between the two have ended, leaving the undefeated boxer free to pursue deals with other promoters.

Now, after filing a complaint against one of their promising boxers, ALA Promotions did just that, show an existing contract between Magsayo and ALA Promotions.

Signed on Jan. 10, 2017, the contract—discussed in English and in the local language familiar to both parties—puts Magsayo under a five-year promotion contract with ALA Promotions, the very thing that ALA has been saying all this time. And among their agreements was that ALA was required to give the boxer three fights a year, which it did in 2017 (against Issa Nampepeche, Daniel Diaz, and Shota Hayashi), just as it did in the previous three years.

Per ALA’s complaint, the issue started at the end of 2017, when Magsayo stopped reporting to their camp for training, only to resurface a few months later with a new manager and promoter in tow.

When all this started, I thought Magsayo’s camp had the upper hand because if indeed ALA had a contract, all it had to do was show it, right?

It’s easy to paint ALA Promotions as the villain in the story, given the toxic reputation of some promoters, but let’s not forget that when Cebu boxing was nothing, it was ALA Promotions that kept it alive.

Yes, Michael Aldeguer isn’t ALA himself, but I don’t think guys like Donnie Nietes and Milan Melindo would have stayed if the outfit is as bad as some people are projecting it to be online.

It’s easy now to understand why, at the height of the controversy, ALA simply didn’t shut Magsayo’s camp by showing the contract because it didn’t want to further strain relations with their once favorite boxer. Included in their complaint were the minutes of a board meeting where ALA basically wanted a settlement at the soonest possible time.

If it wanted to, ALA could derail the boxer’s career but it didn’t, and I hope that offering of an olive branch could mean an amicable end to the dispute so that both boxer and promoter can go on with more meaningful pursuits.

I’m not putting any pressure on myself to make that decision after one match here or two matches, because I don’t need to. I can decide when I want. ANDY MURRAY on Wimbledon.