Pacific Xtreme Championship (PXC) in Manila

Hello out there!  Sorry it's been a while, but I haven't done much that has been blog-worthy.  The past couple of weeks have been busy with work and some illness.  Our class has spread a bug around the room, and we all have had the sniffles and sneezes.  We are all on the mend now (I hope!) and the majority of the new analysts have completed their training.  Now the hard part begins, but I have complete confidence in everyone.  :-)

I met a nice fella called Tim on internations.org before I arrived in Manila and he's been trying to get me out to do something since I arrived.  I finally took him up on an offer to attend PXC 29 at Ynares Coliseum here in Manila.  PXC is Pacific Xtreme Championship - like UFC in the states.

The drive there was interesting in itself.  I really should have taken pictures while we were driving through some of the neighborhoods, but I didn't want to be *that* tourist.  These neighborhoods are like ours, but MUCH much more compact and everyone just hangs out in the street.  We had to drive slowly because there were so many people and vehicles of all kinds, particularly the trikes(?) - a motorcycle with a passenger thing attached.  And of course the jeepneys.  There are open air markets, general stores, any kind of shop you can think of, just like in any other neighborhood in the world.  But when compared to the US, it's very compact - there's no walkway between buildings, everything appears to be connected.  I will take pictures of that sometime, as it really is something to see.  I got a real sense of community there.

We arrived at the coliseum in plenty of time, got our tickets (free, thanks to Tim's connections - woohoo!) and found our seats.  They were pretty good!  We had a view of where the fighters are introduced and could see their teams and the medical crew standing by.

And the fights were underway.  It took a while for the place to fill up, but once it did, everyone was very enthusiastic.

Let's get ready to rumble!

Grappling

 

This bout was bloody...

That guy's shorts started out white...

Ring girl, Abby Pomplador

My eye candy for the evening... Ilima Maiava from Hawaii

!!!

The final fight, for the PXC bantamweight champion, was won by Ali Cali of the Philippines.  The crowd went crazy when he had an opening and started pummeling his opponent.  The referee stopped the fight.

It was a fun evening!  There will be another in June, I hope I get to attend that one.  It would appear that MMA is just taking off here in the Philippines, so being a part of the beginning is kind of exciting!


I spent this morning getting a new tattoo!  The artist came to my place, pulled out the drawings he had based on the ideas I gave him and made my living room into a tattoo shop.  Tattoos are much less expensive here than in the US, so I plan on getting inked up!  This one isn't finished yet, but I will post a pic when it's done.