With Manny V. Pangilinan providing the financial muscle, the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines is putting up an ultra-modern training facility in Antipolo that it will use in staging a pocket tournament early next year.
ABAP secretary general Marcus Manalo, gracing the online Philippine Sportswriters Association weekly forum yesterday, said that the MVP Sports Foundation is taking the lead in its construction.
But the ABAP clarified that the state-owned boxing gym at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila and the Teachers’ Camp in Baguio would remain as training sites given what it already offers to national athletes.
“The Antipolo facility will be just an addition,” Manalo said, noting that it will be an ideal venue to host international training camps and tournaments.
“That facility will have areas for accommodation, billeting for international guests,” he added.
Its target opening will be early-2023, just in time for the country’s preparations for the Southeast Asian Games taking place in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh in May and the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September.
While the entire venue will be privately funded by Pangilinan, the federation plans to send a request to the Philippine Sports Commission for the purchase of boxing equipment.
