CEBU City – ALA Promotions is going full blast for 2016 as it showcases two world title fights and three huge boxing cards overseas in the next nine months.
The ball starts rolling by April 23 when Nonito Donaire Jr. stakes his World Boxing Organization (WBO) super-bantamweight crown against Hungarian Zsolt Bedak at the Cebu City Sports Complex.
No less than Top Rank big boss Bob Arum will be flying over to the Queen City of the South to be at ringside for the 12-round title fight, a tie-up between the world renowned boxing outfit and ALA.
The bout marks Donaire's first defense of the crown he won last year against Cesar Juarez.
A month later on May 28, the thriving Cebu-based boxing outfit goes to Bacolod City for Donnie Nietes’ first fight of the year.
The 33-year-old longest reigning Filipino world champion has no opponent yet, but ALA boxing president Michael Aldguer is looking at either Francisco Rodriguez or Ramon Garcia Hirales.
Nietes had beaten both Mexican fighters in the past, although Hirales claimed he was the winner of their October 2011 bout also in Bacolod City when the pride of Murcia, Negros Occidental first won the WBO 108-lbs. title belt.
Then on July 9, ALA stages its second outing in the US by holding a fight card in San Francisco, California which could be headlined by rising fighters Albert Pagara and Mark Magsayo. Both fighters are featured in the 35th edition of Pinoy Pride 35 this Saturday at the Waterfront Hotel here, and their American stint would largely depend on the outcome of their respective fights against Yesner Talavera and Eduardo Montoya.
Nietes is likely to see action in the US for the second time to banner the Filipino boxing stable’s scheduled September 24 offering at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, the same venue where he made his debut before American audience last year with a unanimous decision win over Juan Alejo.
By November, ALA will invade Dubai anew although no schedule has yet been set. The Pagara brothers and Magsayo starred in the last boxing promotion held by the outfit in the Middle East country last year before a huge crowd at the World Trade Center.