Name Game

Sometimes the sport of boxing is very difficult to fathom. It is a dynamic sport. It is one of the oldest form of combat sport yet continues to evolve.

What I don't understand is the way how managers and promoter evolve in their business approach. They evolve in such a way that they will experiment different kinds of business strategy to maximize generation of money. It might not bad to the boxers who risk their lives every time they step inside the ring because the bigger the money the bigger their purses might be.

But blatantly changing the family name of the boxers to the name of their manager or promoter for is not acceptable in my opinion. This is for the purpose of branding their businesses. And making the fighters like walking merchandise advertising their promotional outfit.

I'm 100 percent in agreement with respected journalist Ronnie Natanielsz position on this issue. It is the right of every one to keep his name. We as human beings are being identified by our name. Changing our name to something else to look like a merchandize with the branding of its promoter/manager is an outright insult.

I'm ranting precisely about Mr. Naris Singwancha.

Naris Singwancha believes in branding his boxing promotional company by affixing his name on the fighter's name he promoted. The move also is being supported by Boxrec.com, a popular boxing website. There were many fighters out there in Thailand that have their promoters/managers name on their fighters. But it seemed this practice is not supported by Boxrec in the Philippines.

Imagine if Manny Pacquiao is promoted by Singwancha early in his career. So we have a very popular boxer Manny Singwancha. So how that sounds? It clearly stripped Pacquiao's Filipino identity. I'm sure there's no Filipino that has a surname Singwancha in the Philippines.

This practice is very rampant in Thailand. There's 3K Battery, CP Fresh Mart, Singwancha and many others. If this practice is allowed in Thailand let it be there in Thailand. But don't get me wrong, I'm not supporting this practice anywhere. Singwancha might be helping Pinoy boxer to excel in the sport of boxing but stripping their family name is worse than stripping their world championship. And in fact they aren't yet champions.

Although it seemed Mr. Singwancha was not able to put his name officially to his Filipino promoted fighters. But in a Ronnie Natanielsz' report on Philboxing, Singwancha's names was affix in one of his Filipino promoted fighters who fights on Friday that coincide with the Philippines Independence Day. Singwancha became the last name of Ardie Boyse in a fight poster.

Imagine if this practice becomes an accepted norm and all Bob Arum's fighters will have a surname of Arum. Imagine how many boxers have family name Arum? Or what about Top Rank? Worse! What about Oscar's Golden Boy Promotions. Then we have Saul Golden Boy Promotion. What a name! All fighters in one promotion can be mistaken as all relatives.

Imagine Al Haymon doing the same strategy. He pits his in-house fighters in almost all his boxing card on PBC. So how many cards having billing Haymon vs. Haymon?