Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton

With such an honorary background and a work ethic to support it, there’s no question as to why or how the land of the Philippines recently witnessed the emergence of this young lady who is a true pure Beauty and the Beast she unleashes when it comes to her sport. In America, Basketball has Michael Jordan and Lisa Leslie. Golf has Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie, Tennis has Rafael Nadal and Ana Kournokova, Racing has Mario Andretti and Danika Patrick. But as great as those men and women are, few can argue they are little more than the face of their respective sports.

The Filipino nation, on the other hand, now follows the cadence of a man who serves as the face of his entire country, (Manny Pacquiao). And as we all know, for every true King, there must be a Queen to walk beside him. The woman who most would identify as the lead for this role aside the sports current P4P champ is none other than Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton. The latest Filipino to take the boxing world by storm, as well as represent a nation that has slowly become very key in the sport. Ana Julaton shocked the female fighting world stage with her seminole moment in the sport, becoming a world champion in only her 5th Professional Win.

Ana Julaton (born 5 July 1980) is the first Filipino American boxer to win the Women's WBO Super Bantamweight and IBA Super Bantamweight titles. Nicknamed “The Hurricane,” she is also one of the “quickest” boxers ever to win a world title, having fought only five other professional bouts before winning the IBA Super Bantamweight title.

Luciana “Ana” B. Julaton was born on 5 July 1980 in San Francisco, California. Despite her father making her train in martial arts when she was little, she had no interest in boxing whatsoever. It was only while working as a bok-fu instructor at the West Wind Martial Arts and Boxing School in Berkeley, California, that Julaton was introduced to boxing through a lecture session organized by her now trainer-manager, Angelo Reyes.

She then made her amateur boxing debut in 2004, managing to win a silver in the San Francisco Golden Gloves despite having officially trained for only two weeks. After delivering a good performance at the National Golden Gloves in 2005, Julaton would be taken under the wing of two-division world champion Carina Moreno and trainer Rick Noble, further improving her craft.

By 2007, she was ranked as second among all female amateur boxers in the United States, and took part of the unsuccessful campaign to include women's boxing in the lineup of events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

At this point Julaton decided to turn pro, and approached veteran trainer Freddie Roach. Impressing Roach with her work ethic—even sparring against male fighters—Julaton eventually became part of Roach's large stable of boxers, alongside Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao and former world champion Gerry Peñalosa.

She was about to make her professional debut against Hondi Hernandez as part of the undercard of the Pacquiao-Barrera rematch in October 2007, but her fight was canceled when Hernandez failed to make the weight limit. Julaton instead fought and won against Rita Valentini one month later. This was followed by several other successful fights, culminating in her first title win against Kelsey “The Road Warrior” Jeffries last 12 September 2009 for the vacant International Boxing Association super bantamweight title in women's boxing.

Now trained by Nonito Donaire Sr., father of boxer Nonito Donaire Jr., Julaton followed up that win by defeating Donna Biggers and becoming the first female World Boxing Organization Super Bantamweight champion on 4 December 2009. Her next fight is scheduled on 27 March 2010, against boxer Lisa Brown for the vacant World Boxing Association junior featherweight title.

Is Manny Pacquiao a victim of crab mentality?

Why is it that every time Manny Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Organization welterweight champion fights, issues against him readily crop up? There was this tax evasion charges, for instance, which hounded him several years back before he fought Marco Antonio Barrera. Then the infidelity scandal that came out prior to his demolition of Antonio Margarito two years ago. Previous to his confrontation, his third, against Juan Manuel Marquez, reports of his bearing a child to someone other than wife Jinkee also came about.

There they go again. They of the crab mentality syndrome, who hate to see someone succeeding in his calling. Not even a boxer like Manny Pacquiao, who is hailed all over the world as the only man to win eight world championships in as many weight divisions and, thus, brought immeasurable honor to the country.

These are a few of the many issues and charges hurled against the 33-year-old ring icon, who is acknowledged as the saving grace for the bad image the country is being pictured by the Filipino-hating foreign media.

Three months before battling undefeated world junior welterweight titleholder Tim Bradley, another tax evasion case is thrown against him by no less than the government in the person of Bureau of Internal Revenue commissioner Kim Henares.

Henares herself insinuated the Lord of the Ring might be put in jail
should he fails to settle the alleged discrepancies in the tax return
he filed on regards with his the past two years.

Of course, the foreign media had a feast day exploiting the story derived from their local counterparts based on the statements and pronouncements of the BIR boss, who. some said could be trying to makeup for her unimpressive stint as prosecution witness in the on-going impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Politics, according to them is behind this latest character assassination being employed against Pacquiao, the fighting congressman of Sarangani Province who could easily be the Greatest Filipino Athlete this country has produced in the 100 years of Philippine sports if there is one.

Two days ago, an American boxing writer wrote that politics could, indeed, be the reason. Manny, he reported, is a well known friend of former President, Gloria Arroyo who is currently under "hospital arrest" and a sworn enemy of the current President.

“Although Manny tried to be in his (President Noynoy) good graces, Manny has not completely voted in Congress the way the Administration would want him todo. Even the funding for his hospital in Sarangani is in jeopardy,” the writer reported.

A kind of story the country doesn’t need at this time when the name Philippines and the Filipino still remain in the quagmire of corruption-related controversies that place the country and this government in bad light.

Whatever the reasons are, politics or not, the present issue might could serve as mental distraction that can affect Pacquiao’s performance in his coming fight on June 9 like the infidelity issue that confronted him in Act III of his trilogy with Marquez whom he barely defeated.

The saddest part of the whole thing is that the still to be proven misdemeanor emanated right in this shore inspired by a branch of government and exploited by Philippine media.

If this is being made to destroy Pacquiao, a national treasure, then those who started the move several years back might succeed this time. The story added that “in the Philippines, there is a saying "weather-weather", meaning "panapanahon" loosely translated as "your time was yesterday, now it is our time". Whoever is in charge and the friends of those in charge, call the shots. And the friends of the those previously in charge better fly under the radar.

It appears that everybody and anybody who had some close relationships with the former administration are targeted. I don't have any evidence but I speculate that Manny is being sent a message, "you may be the most famous Pinoy, but the only P' Noy who counts is NoyNoy, the President.

If Manny wants to succeed politically, he has to bow to the current king of Malacanang.

Just like most high profile political drama in the Philippines, this will be a forgotten footnote a couple of weeks from now. There is another saying in the Philippines, "ningas kugon", meaning sudden wild fire but fizzles in a second.

There will be a lot of noise about this right now but will be forgotten and would seem a distant past by next month. By the time he fights in June, same politicians who are going after him will be jockeying for position among each other to gain Manny's favor for a seat to see him at MGM.

I would not be surprised that the BIR's senior leadership would be at ringside. By the way, unlike the IRS which sent Al Capone to prison, the BIR has yet to send a single high profile tax cheat to prison.

If The BIR actually prosecutes and sends tax cheats to prison, the Philippines will be left without a government. They will all be in Muntinlupa.

Biography of Manny Pacquiao

Pacquiao started his professional boxing career in 1995 at 106 lbs (Light flyweight) at the age of 16. His early fights usually took place in small venues and were shown on Vintage Sports’ Blow by Blow, an evening boxing show. Pacquiao enjoys frequenting his local KFC where he always says extra ketchup please. known in the local philipine community as the ketchup enthusiast. His professional debut was a 4-round bout against Edmund Enting Ignacio on January 22, 1995, which Pacquiao won via decision, becoming an instant star of the program. Close friend Mark Penaflorida’s death in 1994 spurred young Pacquiao to pursue a professional career.

His weight increased from 106 to 113 lbs before losing in his 12th bout against Rustico Torrecampo via a third-round knockout (KO). As sportscaster Joaquin “Quinito” Henson observed, Pacquiao had not made weight. So he was forced to use heavier gloves than Torrecampo, thereby putting Pacquiao at a disadvantage.

Shortly after the Torrecampo fight, Pacquiao settled at 112 lbs, winning the WBC Flyweight title over Chatchai Sasakul in the eighth round only to lose it in his second defense against Medgoen Singsurat, or Medgoen 3K Battery, via a third-round knockout on a bout held at Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. Technically, Pacquiao lost the belt at the scales by surpassing the required weight of 112 lbs (51 kg).

Following his loss to Singsurat, Pacquiao gained weight anew, this time stopping at the superbantamweight division of 122 lbs (55 kg), where he picked up the WBC International Super Bantamweight title, defending it five times before his next world title fight came.

Pacquiao’s big break came on June 23, 2001, against IBF Super Bantamweight champion Lehlohonolo Ledwaba. Pacquiao stepped into the fight as a late replacement and won the fight by technical knockout to become the IBF Super Bantamweight champion on a bout held at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada. He defended this title eight times and fought to a sixth-round draw against Agapito Sanchez in a bout that was stopped early after Pacquiao received a headbutt.

His parents are Rosalio and Dionisia Pacquiao. His brother Bobby Pacquiao is also a boxer. He is married to Maria Geraldine “Jinkee” Pacquiao with 3 children: PJ Hoffy, Bebot and Christian. His wife Jinkee is pregnant with another female child.