It’s
Throwback Thursday! My office mate Jasper Francisco took the above uploaded “throwback”
picture of his father and it reminded me of an equally “throwback” blog entry
that I have posted some years back that can be accessed if you click THIS LINK.
To
retell, the Joe Francisco-Chito Adigue fight in May 16, 1981 shattered our high
hopes of seeing our local boxing hero then on top of world championship ring.
In Francisco’s home court he was caught by Adigue’s left hook that landed on his
jaw on the 6th round of the bout. Chito Adigue is a nephew of the
legendary Pedro Adigue, the former World Boxing Council (WBC) Light
Welterweight Champion in the late 60s’ and he was at Chito’s corner that moment.
Joe Francisco, the pride of Brgy. Batasan in San Jose knelt on the canvass the night
he lost and the people of Occidental Mindoro wept for him.
In
his early years in boxing, Diomedes “Joe” Francisco was molded and turned into
a human wrecking ball by the former world champion Erbito Salavarria after the
great but once controversial Filipino puncher saw Joe’s potential when Joe was
still an amateur. After only 2 impressive amateur wins, Salavarria decided to “level
up” his protégée to the professional level for the featherweight division. That
was 1977 and he’s the Philippines’ newest ring sensation. Boxing analysts in
Joe’s golden years considered him as a thinking boxer because of the
way he analyzes his opponent before delivering his own killer punches. Until
that heartbreaking loss from the hands, err, fist of Adigue. His second lost
was in a match held at Araneta Coliseum via split decision to Gener Cruz in
October 5, 1980, but in their rematch, Francisco won by points over Cruz in
March 1, 1981.
But
life has to continue. He married his most loyal (all pun intended) fan, the
former Loyalyn “Bing Bing” Hilario of Brgy. Pag-Asa, San Jose. Bing Bing, by
the way, just celebrated her 50th (golden!) birthday only last week.
Joe and Bing Bing’s 4 children are all boys.
Seriously,
here’s Joe Francisco’s record after his retirement in 1981: a total of 26
fights; 23 wins; 1 draw; 2 losses. Francisco was the #1 Philippine Junior
Featherweight contender and #3 in the OPBF or the Orient Pacific Boxing Federation
that time. Three 3 years after that
gruesome lost, Joe successfully won by way of unanimous decision in his two
comeback fights but have decided to finally hang his gloves. He now has a growing
family to attend to and new career path to thread.
From
fistfights, Joe finally ended in public safety sector, specifically firefighting
now known as SFO2 Diomedes L. Francisco of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP). Only last June 28, he headed the Volunteer
Fire Brigade of Sablayan which won the Provincial Fire Olympics and will be
representing our province in the upcoming regional competition this September.
Way
back in November 10, 1982, a year after his retirement from boxing, Bing Bing
gave birth to their first born Drian (nicknamed Jhong) in Brgy, Pag-Asa, San
Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Joe raised Drian Francisco (25-2-1) in Sablayan to be
a boxer like him. Drian had been boxing for about 142 rounds now with 71.43
knock out percentage in his 28 professional fights. In Drian’s early professional
bouts held here in the Philippines, Bing Bing took care of her son’s diet while Joe give pre-fight pointers and acted as physical conditioning coach in the training camp. But Sweet Science runs deep in Joe’s veins that even after
he decided to quit the pugilists’ world, he teaches free boxing lessons to kids,
act as referee or promoter of boxing matches in our province. He is also into
street basketball as his pastime and he’s in excellent shape until now that
he’s already in his mid- 50s.
Let
us go back to Drian, the son, just this August he returned to the ring after
one year layoff KO’ing in the 3rd round Colombian Manuel de los
Reyes Herrera at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in California. A big fight for
Drian, after series of fine tuning in the US, is expected to be coming up soon like
what his manager Justine Fortune have announced.
And
there’s another boxer in Joe Francisco’s family in a son named Lloyd. Lloyd’s
first fight as a professional was in September 29, 2007 defeating Jose Ocampo
at Ynares Plaza in Binangonan, Rizal. His last fight was held two years ago
winning by TKO at the expense of Roger Galicia in Lipa City. Being sidelined
for almost 2 years, certainly he could still comeback. In his 12 professional
fights, Lloyd record is as follows: 10 wins (6 by KO) and lost twice via KO. The
last time I heard he is applying for a slot also at the BFP. I am unaware if it is
still Lloyd’s dream to box overseas say for instance at the Madison Square
Garden in a city called “The Big Apple”.
Only
the Francisco twins, Jasper and Jarred, are not into boxing but Jarred aspires
to be like his father the other way around which is to be with the public
safety sector someday as a policeman. On the other hand, Jasper is aiming into something
else that he cannot figure out until now. He was once a Sepak Takraw star
player in college until he got a knee injury and stopped. When asked if he
also willing to box or to deal with fire someday, Jasper jokingly told me that
he prefers to be a porn star!
With all certainty, the Francisco siblings absorbed not only their father’s boxing ability
and public safety skills but more importantly, they must learn parenting
lessons from Joe Francisco,- the former fist fighter, the present chief fire
fighter of our pristine town and forever father to his sons…
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(Photo : Jasper Francisco)
(Photo : Jasper Francisco)
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