Three Thrilling Matches to Watch on the Undercard of ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD

Wazzup Pilipinas!

ONE Championship, which is widely considered as the frontrunner of martial arts in the world, is set to electrify the iconic Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar by holding ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

Looking to keep that big ball of momentum going generated by the recent cards in Jakarta and Manila, the blockbuster live event will feature the absolute best in local and international talent, accentuating a tremendous main event bout between hometown hero Aung La N Sang and Brazil’s Alexandre Machado.

With the ONE Light Heavyweight Championship awaiting the winner of the five-round clash between Aung La N Sang and Machado, the spotlight is on the headlining bout of ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

However, Aung La N Sang and Machado are not taking the whole attention away from the event as ONE Championship has prepared a top-notch undercard, which is sure to draw plenty of chatter around the world.

When the cage door closes in Yangon on Friday, 23 February, here is a closer look at three exciting matches to watch out for on the undercard of ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

Ev Ting vs. Ariel Sexton

Throughout the course of his career, Ev Ting has earned a reputation as a competitor willing to face any challenge.

Ting has been a part of ONE Championship for nearly the past four years and has quickly become one of the most exciting lightweights on the entire roster.

With only a few decisions on his record, Ting prides himself on bringing the pressure to every single opponent he encounters.

Overall, Ting has racked up nine stoppage victories against everyone from top-rated strikers to world-class grapplers and has proven that he is not afraid to mix it up with anyone.

The 28-year-old Malaysian-Kiwi dynamo is determined to continue his ascension up the lightweight ranks and compete against the best martial artists in the world.

In front of a passionate crowd in Yangon, Ting seeks the shine bright like a diamond once more on Friday as he squares off with Ariel “Tarzan” Sexton at ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

It has been more than 18 months since Sexton last stepped foot in the ONE Championship cage, but he has never lost sight of his long-term goals in the sport.

With three consecutive wins under his belt, Sexton is poised to make a big splash in his return to ONE Championship as he is set to collide with a former ONE Lightweight World Championship challenger like Ting at ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

As much as Sexton wanted to return to action sooner, injuries kept him sidelined throughout 2017.

Although he encountered a career-threatening injury, Sexton has kept his eyes on the prize and has never given up his dream to become a world champion.

Sexton understands as time passes, it is tougher to remember performances like his rear-naked choke submission victory over Eddie Ng in May 2015 or his astonishing stoppage win over Roger Huerta in July 2016.

The next step in his journey takes place at ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD, where Sexton will look for his fourth consecutive win as he takes on Ting in the co-feature attraction at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon.

Amir Khan vs. Timofey Nastyukhin

Amir Khan is considered one of the most promising young talents to represent Singapore on the international stage of martial arts like ONE Championship.

Holding a professional record of 9-2, Khan is currently riding high on a six-match winning streak with his victories coming by way of exciting finish.

In his recent trip to the ONE Championship cage last November, Khan figured in his most impressive performance yet, overwhelming lightweight veteran Adrian “The Hunter” Pang with a showcase of impeccable striking and great takedown defense.

Khan will once again strut his wares on the global stage as he takes on Russian wrecking machine Timofey Nastyukhin at ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

Despite making a spectacular entrance onto the global stage with an emphatic flying knee finish of beloved Filipino martial arts hero Eduard Folayang in December 2014, Nastyukhin’s time inside the ONE Championship cage has not been without challenges.

Nastyukhin experienced a minor setback in 2015 when he lost to Herbert Burns via submission, but soon returned to knock out “Ruthless” Rob Lisita in just six seconds, tying the record for the fastest finish in ONE Championship history.

But in his very next bout in November 2016, Nastyukhin suffered a broken tibia during his clash with Kotetsu Boku.

Following nine months of extensive rehab and self-reflection, Nastyukhin was determined to continue pursuing his martial arts dream as he successfully returned to defeat Koji Ando last August, and

Nastyukhin now battles Singaporean rising star Khan in a colossal clash between proven knockout artists at ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

Li Kai Wen vs. Roel Rosauro

After his much-awaited return to ONE Championship ended in unfortunate fashion three months ago, Chinese martial arts ace Li Kai Wen is preparing to make a definitive statement as he makes his first trip to the cage this 2018.

Li is scheduled to duke it out with the Philippines’ Roel “Akiyama” Rosauro in a three-round featherweight affair on the undercard of ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.

After winning the ONE Featherweight Beijing Tournament in 2014, Li cemented his position as one of the most fearsome young competitors from China.

Li utilizes his tremendous striking ability and aggression to overwhelm foes with his offense, which has resulted in a series of impressive highlight-reel stoppages so far in his budding career.

The man known as “The Underdog” was originally slated to face Rodian Menchavez at ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD, but the Filipino veteran was forced to withdraw from the contest due to an injury.

Rosauro accepted the offer to step in for compatriot Menchavez and square off against an up-and-coming martial arts talent like Li in his promotional debut.

Holding a professional record of 4-1, Rosauro is a practitioner of the Filipino martial arts discipline Yaw-Yan, a Filipino style of kickboxing with emphasis on hip-torquing motion and delivering attacks from long range as well as the downward-cutting nature of its kicks.

With Li aiming to build some steam towards his campaign of becoming China’s first ONE Featherweight World Champion, he will welcome the gutsy Rosauro to the ONE Championship cage on Friday.

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The Big Bad Wolf 24-Hour Book Sale Did Not Disappoint!

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Many were saying that the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale held at World Trade Center did not disappoint. Almost all Children’s Books were under PhP200. The 24/7 bookstore with as high as 80% markdown is a must-go for everyone especially parents and teachers. “Bring a maleta” is not an exaggeration because there's too many choices available. It’s until February 25 so don't miss it.

The organizers held a preview for media and selected guests (plus gave away extra passes for friends) on the day after Valentine's, February 15, before it opened its doors to the public the following day.

You have around 2 million titles to choose from with various genres, and at amazingly low prices (and I am not paid to advertise). Hurry up, since stocks for your favorite books might be running low already.

Books and stuff start at php100 and ranges from that price point up to 1000php++ for premium titles. Well, they are open 24hrs so you literally have all the time to scan, sort, and find what you want.

All the books your heart desires. This in an opportunity to score your dreams books for cheap. A Lady Gaga photobook is sold at PHP580, that's 95% off!

However, I am exaggerating when I say all because the graphic novels that I were looking for were not there. I was looking more on superhero hardbound books with amazing illustrations. I guess what they have there are not the limited and rare editions.

But what is more going on inside my head is to demand that it is about time they lower the price of books to make them really affordable by even the masses. We need to give the people more access to quality books that are not available online to further educate them.

Speaking of online, I understand why some people love books but for those of us who live and breathe online (being active in blogging and social media), I would rather read the digital versions not just to save the trees but also to pack light. Books just add unnecessary excess weight in the backpack when I travel. For us who like to read while on the road, the physical books just aren't practical to bring.

I could store thousands of digital books on my smartphone and even share them to friends. Though I also understand about copyright laws and stuff, but just as how we can give away physical books to our friends or loved ones, we can do the same with the digital books we legally purchased.

Flipping the pages of physical books do have its own magical experience, but we have to be practical that they just don't really lasts and eventually rots and adds to the heaps of garbage. But to compensate, at least they do survive our lifetime and even longer if we take good care of them.

However, just as how some people buy comics to collect and then put inside vacuum-sealed plastics, there are also some who buy books just to display them on their shelves....or hand-carry to show-off to other people that they are smart enough to understand the complex one, or could well afford to buy the expensive ones.

Passing physical books from person to person is also unsanitary because all that unseen miscroscopic dirt accummulates in the books. Yup! I'm a bit conscious about hygiene now eventhough I am brave enough to handle dirty chores when I was younger. Ever since I got a terrible case of chicken pox, I try to stay away from dirt as much as possible.

I've received quite a few books that I have barely read because I just couldn't find the time to even finish a chapter. There will always be something more urgent or important that I need to attend to.

But I'm sure when I retire I'll be able to appreciate books more just as how I did when I was younger.

I cannot deny that I was a bookworm myself when I was still schooling. Now I am trying to bring back that excitement in reading, but fails miserably.

My father once bought a lot of second-hand foreign books from a garage sale which introduced me to the likes of Rudyard Kipling and other famous authors back then. It was also my first reads for illustrated or graphic books like Dr. Who which started my love for such illustrated sci-fi titles which eventually got diverted to comic books from Marvel and DC. I was going through book sales, book stores and other places that sells magazines featuring science fiction, adventure, mystery, horror, etc., In college I collected X-Men, Justice League, Spiderman, Batman, and Superman titles which expanded to Image's Spawn and other similar genres.

I lost all of my childhood collection because of the Ondoy flood which struck our home almost waist-deep. Sad that the memories are gone now but it did taught us a lesson to always store our precious stuff at higher drawers.

Maybe that somehow caused why I don't like investing on books anymore. Disasters like floods, fire, etc., could easily destroy them. Or maybe it is also because I have a family now, I would prioritize the basic necessities instead of going to a bookstore to find something to read. It is also faster to get information online and even coming from different sources giving me a broader perspective of a topic.

But again, it would all be probably different if books are sold cheap. Thus, we appreciate the 10-day book sale by Big Bad Wolf. The cheaper prices and 24-hour strategy gives us no reason not to drop by.

Cats of BGC: Finding FURever Foster for Fit, Friendly & Fixed Felines

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Cats seems to be not as friendly as dogs, because we have half-a-dozen of them hanging around at our place yet they mostly sleep and only come to us when we bring out food for them. They literally made the front of our house their home. Itvstarted with just two, but now there's six of them. That's three generations of cats at our home.

It was sort of funny because, the other unit (we live at a bliss home) has dogs as pets. But they keep them inside their homes. While our cats remain outside because my wife is not so fond of them due to her asthma.

From what I have observed at our place, unlike dogs that are always excited to play with you, cats are more reserved with only one exception - one that would always come near me and rub her body on my legs everytime I'm out in the front of our house doing chores like hanging the newly-washed clothes to dry.

I could tell because we had pet dogs before when I was young. It was only when we transferred to a bliss home that we couldn't take care of a dog due to the small space. There's very little room (and no time since we are all out during the day - school for the kids and work for wifey and me) to have a pet dog that requires a lot of responsibility.

For the cats that moved in infront of us, they were just strays who decided to adopt themselves for us...that's because we don't drive them away.

They often try to go inside the house for reasons I am not sure yet. But we don't have rats at our home that they could chase. Maybe they are hunting for something else but I really don't think they're looking for food because they don't go to our kitchen

Without any doubt, I believe there are so many cat lovers out there that would even take the extra time to care and feed even the strays or homeless.

I've even seen other nationalities aside from Filipinos who make it part of their mission in life. They regularly drop by to feed them. And I witnessed this at Bonifacio Global City (BGC).

Thus, it is sad to learn that the cats who hang around there are missing and rumored to have been killed as part of a "pest control" movement by one of the hotels there identified as Shangri-La The Fort.

The hotel is being bashed not because of bad service or accommodations but of the possibility that they ended the lives of the missing cats.

Instead of finding an alternative home for these cats (who are said to be littering the areas with their poops) the cat lovers fear that they may have been mass slaughtered.

"This needs to be checked on by the media to open awareness that cats have rights and that they just cannot be treated like pests.  Hope someone who lives near the area who cares for the missing cats take the time and effort to report personally to GMA, ABS-CBN, News 5, Tulfo Brothers etc.  so that there can be justice"

So below is a statement from the group Cats of BGC (can be found on Facebook but is also under scrutiny for hearsays damaging to the group's cause) giving us an update of their search for the missing cats:

(UPDATE)
"Like what was reported, we met with the Shangri-La management in regards to the missing #CatsOfBGC yesterday. Of course, we were very touched by the outpouring love and support our missing Shang cats received from everyone, but we also knew that we at Cats of BGC shouldn't let our emotions get the best of us. Posting this update took longer than we wanted because we had to think of how we can remain compassionate not just for our cats, but for the humans involved as well. How else can our efforts to give our cats better lives come true, if we don't take steps towards harmony in the BGC community?

Yes we miss our cats and it is very heartbreaking for us to wander down the Shang area and feel like our day is incomplete because there are less cats to attend to during our regular routines. Yes, some of our cats (like adoptables Mandy & Belo but not as many as the estimate previously reported) were captured and sent to areas we are still currently verifying, while some that weren't captured have been hastily fostered by protective and caring hoomans.

And yes, we were personally outraged because we have been sacrificing a lot of our time, energy, resources, work-life balance, etc. just so we can keep doing our roles for the welfare of the Cats of BGC.

The good news is, moving forward, the Shangri-La management has offered to help us promote awareness for the adoption of our cats. Their willingness to lend a hand in our efforts to find homes for the cats is something we appreciate. Because the sad truth is, Shang's action is not something new. Friendly, fit and fixed cats in OTHER areas in BGC have been captured in the past as well (even before this page was created), without extending the assistance that the Shang management has promised us now.

As much as we feel dismayed for those past incidents, we'd rather not disclose those areas anymore, because we are hopeful that this recent incident can serve as a lesson to everyone, and finally stop the misconception that removing even the friendly, fit and fixed free-roamers can keep an area cat-free. (Nope, because as soon as those cats are eliminated, new ones, possibly ferals that can multiply and spread diseases, will claim the territory immediately).

We still believe that cats and hoomans can live harmoniously—and we can't accomplish that if we choose to go on the offensive against other hoomans, when we can just focus our efforts in our mission: to continue finding FURever homes for our fit, friendly and fixed felines.

While we are very grateful for the foster parents who immediately welcomed some of our Shang cats, we also know that they are not permanent solutions, since most of them already have their own furbabies they are attending to. We STILL need to find people who can adopt the Shang cats permanently, so they won't have go back to being homeless. Because even if Shangri-La has seen the error in their ways and offered their support in promoting our cats, it is very unfair for the Cats of BGC to be happy, healthy, BUT homeless—just like how they were in the Shang area. They need to find a place where they can be safe forever, especially now that we've also learned that another well-loved cat from a different BGC area had to be sent to the vet and is now being fostered, after a concerned guard noticed him collapsing & vomitting from a suspected poisoning.

Those are the sad realities of homeless cats, and not just in BGC per se. They can be sent for relocation, they can even be poisoned by anonymous cat haters...which is why we are choosing to focus on finding their FURever homes, and reminding everyone to #AdoptDontShop (our BGC cats may be puspins, but the recent incident is a proof of how many people love them. Please give them a chance!), and have #ResponsiblePetOwnership (besides spaying/neutering your cat, please don't dump them, especially in BGC where there are cats we are trying to get adopted. All our efforts will be useless if people keep adding more cats to be fed, fixed and to receive medical treatments.)"

"I normally do not post, but this time I have to break my silence. Just like all of you here, I am very frustrated about what happened to these Cats. Though please be aware that (as pointed out by one poster here) the Cats of BGC is not a formal organization. They are NOT paid to do what they are doing. They do what they are doing out of their sheer generosity and kindness to the Cats and to us Cat Lovers. Remember that they occasionally use their personal resources in taking care of the Cats. This being said, I appeal to all to refrain from making further malicious accusations that their group was paid-out or bribed by Shang."