By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Many Filipinos have been scandalized about the cheating bravado of international renowned boxing referee Carlos “Sonny” Padilla on the match of the then unheralded Manny Pacquiao and Australian Nedal Hussein as shown on his video interview. This was a day before his August 2022 induction at the iconic Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in the United States. The Fame honors those individuals for their efforts, achievements, and contributions to one of the Americans favorite pastimes.
I first saw Padilla
in boob tube when he refereed the classic boxing rubber match or third fight
between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier dubbed Thrilla
in Manila held in October 1, 1975 at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.
It was for the heavyweight championship of the world.
The collision
between these two mammoth personalities of the heavyweight was death defying. Padilla
stopped the brutal fisticuff in the 14th Round because the still
gung-ho Frazier could no longer see in his both swollen eyes due to the punches
of Ali.
Louisville Lip’s Ali nearly gave up,
too, on that merciless slugfest.
"It
was like death. Closest thing to dyin' that I know of," the battle scarred pugilist said later of the hell he and Frazier
fought amid the Philippines'
scorching daytime 125 degree Celsius aggravated by the heat emitted from the
bodies of the sea of humanity in the coliseum that overpowered the air
conditioning system.
Padilla's fortune
shined on that marquee fight because it was watched by
one billion viewers around the world.
When Padilla - the actor-father of actress Zsa Zsa Padilla –
met World Boxing Council’s President Jose Sulaimán in a confab held in the U.S, the latter told
him he was impressed about his performance in the Thrilla in Manila. From thereon there was no turning back to the
fame of the son of Philippines Olympic pug Carlos Padilla, Sr.
He became the third
man in the high-profile classic global boxing matches like
those of Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Roberto Durán - 1, Thomas Hearns vs. Roberto
Durán, Julio César Chávez vs. Ruben Castillo and Salvador Sánchez vs. Wilfredo
Gómez. He refereed his final bout on October 14, 2000, between Manny Pacquiao
and Nedal Hussein in the Philippines. This fight would haunt him and his family
22 years later.
In his interview uploaded by the WBC last October 6 in YouTube, the animated retired Ref answered the posers of the interviewer’s WBC President José Sulaimán Chagnón - the son of Jose Sulaimán.
He described Hussein as tall, younger,
stronger, and a dirty pug. In the fourth round he knocked down Pacquiao who
could not get up immediately as his eyes crossed (naduling in the vernacular).
The 88
years old Padilla, whose blabber could be at the league of Gen. George “faux
pas” Patton, said: “I am Filipino, and everybody
watching the fight is Filipino, so I prolonged the count. I know how to do it.
When he got up, I told him, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ Still prolonging the fight.
‘Are you okay?’ ‘Okay, fight!” he proudly told the
interviewer.
The Ref – the grand dad of prolific actresses Karylle
and Zia Quizon - ordered a point
deducted from Hussein for pushing Pacquiao to the floor since he felt the Pinoy
fighter had no chance to brawl until the end of the 12th Round.
Padilla declared
Pacquiao's head butt on Hussein as a legal punch. The mestizo looking Ref
initially did not let the doctor take a closer look at the cut because he said
it was not serious.
“When the doctor was approaching (Padilla’s
moved sideways his left lower lip as signal to stop the fight) hahaha!” he
said on the later round.
The doctor sensed
what he meant examine the cut to the head of the Aussie and signaled to the
public the end of the match on the tenth round.
Hussein, a salesman
now, in a statement in the social media called the WBC to take action on the
case.
"They should be held accountable for the
sport we love," he
wrote on Instagram.
With that bombshell
that could taint all his feats in boxing, Padilla and the Doctor should be
condemned and reprimanded on their chicanery. The Hall of Fame should strip off
its conferment with the beleaguered Ref. The offense he committed could not
only ruin him and his family but the entire Filipino nation inhabited by miscreants and knaves who were notorious in not only cheating in countless public
posts held in an election but in the beauty and baseball tilts as shown by the Manila Films Festival’s
scandal in 1994 where the winners were rigged by celluloid screen personalities
like Lolit Solis, Ruffa Gutierrez, and Gabby Concepcion and the cheating by
Filipino officials that saw baseball players from Zamboanga won the championship
against the athletes from Long Beach, California in the Little
League World Series held in Aug. 29, 1992 in the United States. Two of the
excerpts from the prestigious Washington Post said:
“It
turned out that only six of the 14 team members came from Zamboanga. Philippine
Little League officials had substituted eight ineligible players, plus an
ineligible manager and coach, from other places across the Philippines to
create an all-star national team in violation of Little League tournament
rules”.
“There
were also allegations -- so far unproved -- that some of the players were over
the age limit for Little League. The tournament requires players to be under 13
on Aug. 1”.
These
rigging brouhahas were widely covered by international media at the expense of
the reputation of us Flips, er, Filipinos. And now here comes Sonny Padilla
shooting himself on the foot with his big mouth, salamabit!
READ MY OTHER BLOG:
The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra
MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.