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MANILA, Philippines – It’ll be the biggest fight of Milan Melindo’s career but it won’t be televised live in the Philippines.
ABS-CBN, which has carried Melindo’s fights since he headlined the second Pinoy Pride card in 2010, will broadcast the fight at 8 pm on January 2, two days after the IBF junior flyweight champ Melindo faces WBA titleholder Ryoichi Taguchi in a unification bout on Sunday, December 31 in Tokyo, Japan. Filipino fans will instead have to look for live streams to watch the fight in real time, or scour YouTube and social media for replays.
The reason is the season, says ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer.
“It’s New Year season and everything is set up already and they have all their shows. They couldn’t do it on the 31st and then the first because all the shows have been set up for the past 20 years. So they’re gonna show it on the second,” said Aldeguer.
Typically Pinoy Pride cards are shown live on pay-per-view through SKYcable, then replayed the following morning on free TV. Aldeguer says he “worked on it” to get the air time to show it live, and that ABS-CBN executives also passed on showing it on January 1 because “people are tired after New Year” and may not tune in.
“They felt that…they might not be able to get the viewers we intend to have on New Year’s Eve,” said Aldeguer.
An email to ABS-CBN’s public relations department was not returned by the time of this story’s publication.
Milan Melindo stands 4 inches shorter than Ryoichi Taguchi, but has made a career out of beating taller foes.
— Rappler Sports (@RapplerSports) December 30, 2017
READ: https://t.co/AJsWK2DQgb pic.twitter.com/c1ahvyhQc9
The fight will be shown on TBS Television in Japan as part of a card which features two other world championship fights.
Melindo’s title-winning fight, a first round technical knockout of Akira Yaegashi in May, was also not shown live in the Philippines after a planned pay-per-view for P99 was canceled abruptly due to unspecified “technical issues.” The fight was shown a week later instead.
(READ: Milan Melindo robbed of his crowning moment by TV delay)
Both Melindo (107.5 pounds) and Taguchi (107.75 pounds) made weight Saturday, with Aldeguer remarking that Melindo cut down much more comfortably than he did in September, when he initially missed weight and had to return to the scale before his fight with Hekkie Budler, which he won by split-decision.
Should Melindo emerge victorious, he may not be done trying to unify titles. WBC titleholder Ken Shiro, who stopped Gilberto Pedroza in Yokohama, Japan Saturday night to retain his belt, has called for the winner of Sunday’s fight, and Aldeguer says Melindo is game.
“They’ve spoken about that, they’ve approached us…but it’s still very premature to discuss it,” said Aldeguer. “If Milan wins tomorrow, then that’s the direction he wants. But first, all the focus is on tomorrow.” – Rappler.com
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