The Philippine Online Chronicles

The NBA announced that all the games for November are already cancelled due to the unresolved lockout drama. The decision, which was after the negotiations on how to split the revenue hasn’t been figured out by the team owners and player union.

In boxing, Top Rank Promotions has put a 100,000-dollar bonus to anybody who can defeat reigning WBC and WBO bantamweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire. That means any one who is able to defeat the Filipino will get the “bonus” money on top of the guaranteed purse. Top Rank decided to put up the bonus cash to prevent the circus that happened last week in Donaire’s fight against Omar Narvaez. Donaire won the fight via unanimous decision, but Narvaez didn’t look to fight by employing a defensive game plan for 12 rounds.

In the PBA Philippine Cup, the Talk n’ Text Tropang Texters defeated the Petron Blaze Boosters, 96-86, in the elimination round of the 2011 Philippine Cup. The game was a rematch of the 2011 Governor’s Cup Finals wherein the Boosters derailed the Tropang Texters for a possible Grand Slam. Jared Dillinger and Ryan Reyes led the Tropang Texters with 21 points apiece.

NBA Lockout: League suspends all games in November

With the NBA’s lockout drama still unresolved, NBA commissioner David Stern has suspended all the games through November for the 2011-2012 season. League owners and the player union disagreed with how the revenue should be split in a meeting yesterday.

With the lockout dragging on and billions of dollars are about to be lost because of the game cancellation, there’s a good chance that proposals from both sides will get even harsher.

The owners are insisting that the revenue should be split 50-50 between them and the players. The NBA’s union, led by Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher, proposed that the players should get at least 52.5 percent.

The union has calculated that each month the lockout drags on, players will be losing 350 million USD. Aside from the 50-50 split on revenues, the player union also opposes the idea of a “hard cap” that would restrict the options available for players. Though the league owners already dumped the idea of a hard cap, the union thinks that the owners are devising ways to implement a hard cap that’s not too obvious.

In spite of the current breakdown in discussions, both the owners and union leaders agreed to retain the midlevel exception at around five million USD. In addition to that, contract lengths can go as long as five years for those players who would stay in one team and four years for those who wish to leave for another.

Boxing: Top Rank offers 100,000 USD to defeat Donaire

Top Rank clearly doesn’t want the disappointment that happened last week in the Donaire-Narvaez bout held in New York. Donaire spent the entire night trying to make Omar Narvaez fight. However, the 36-year old Argentine simply wanted to last 12 rounds against the 29-year old Filpino-American by running away and barely throwing any punches.

Narvaez did make it to the finish line against Donaire, but the crowd and the executives of Top Rank were clearly disappointed on the outcome of the fight.

To prevent this from happening again, Top Rank will be giving a 100,000 USD bonus on anyone who can defeat Donaire in the future. The entire setup works both ways because Donaire can also get the bonus cash if he can win against his opponent.

So far, it’s still not clear whether Donaire or his future opponents needs a knockout in order to get the bonus money.

Narvaez spent the entire bout hiding behind his gloves while barely throwing any punches. Though Donaire won all rounds, Narvaez walked away with his purse without getting pummelled into a bloody pulp.

Even with the successful defense of his WBO and WBC bantamweight belts, Donaire is moving to the 122-lb. division next year. Top Rank is already looking into the possibility of putting the likes of Jorge Arce of Mexico, Toshiaki Nishioka of Japan, and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. of Puerto Rico in the ring against Donaire.

Both Arce and Vazquez are scheduled to fight one another in a rematch while Nishioka is considered the best 122-lb. fighter in the world today.

PBA Philippine Cup: Talk n’ Text defeats Petron, 96-86

The Talk ‘n Text Tropang Texters somewhat avenged their painful loss against the Petron Blaze Boosters last conference with a convincing, 96-86, win yesterday in the elimination round of the 2011 Philippine Cup.

Fil-Am forward Jared Dillinger led the Tropang Texters with 21 points while Ryan Reyes had a complete game by also scoring 21 points on top of seven rebounds, four assists, two steals, and a block. Meanwhile, former Smart-Gilas standout Japeth Aguilar contributed 20 points.

For the Petron Blaze Boosters, Arwind Santos and rookie Chris Lutz scored 20 points apiece.

The Tropang Texters started out aggressively by building a 29-20 lead after the first 12 minutes. They continued to attack the Boosters’ defense to close out the first half with a 12-point cushion.

Though the Boosters tried to mount a comeback in the third quarter, the Tropang Texters kept them at bay with their perimeter shooting and transition game. The Boosters eventually closed the gap in the final period, but the Tropang Texters made another run in the final few minutes to cruise to a victory.