Filipino Fighters Address Typhoon

I’m growing bored with HBO’s “24/7” series -- it’s about boxing, which I find numbing -- and it’s been done over and over again: there are a finite amount of ways to film a fighter training and coping with family duties. But the channel had some morbid luck when it went to the Philippines recently to film Manny Pacquiao’s preparation for Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14: typhoons had razed much of the surrounding area, creating an obstacle of deep water for inhabitants.

Pacquiao has offered financial and moral assistance in the country; Filipino athletes stateside are doing much of the same work. Brandon Vera, Mark Munoz, and others have assisted Their Fight is Our Fight, a charitable entity devoted to helping victims of the torrential weather. Vera hosted a workshop last weekend in Los Angeles and told the Asian Journal that “he had to do something…I know it’s hard in the Philippines right now. There are people who lost a lot -- their homes, cars, aunties and uncles. I just want to tell them to keep their heads up and keep moving forward."

Vera meets Randy Couture in a little over a week; there’s more information on the charity’s website.