TOP Rank’s event producer Brad Jacobs will represent Top Rank promoter Bob Arum at the huge boxing event at the Cebu Sports Center on April 23, featuring the World Boxing Organization super bantamweight title defense of Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire and No. 4 contender and former Hungarian Olympian Zsolt Bedak.
Top Rank publicist Fred Sternberg informed The Standard in an email: “I wanted to let you know that Brad Jacobs will be representing Top Rank at the event and that he is looking forward to celebrating his Passover Seder (April 22) in Cebu.”
“The Passover is a Jewish ritual feast with the Seder being a ritual which involves re-telling the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt,” according to Wikipedia.
Jacobs was involved in the many Top Rank promotions at the classy Cotai Arena at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Macau, where eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao headlined two title fights.
Jacobs was quoted in the past as saying: “Our goal is not only to create an in-arena experience that was second to none anywhere in the world.”
The Donaire-Bedak showdown titled “It’s About Time” is being held in a sprawling open-air venue with a canopy over the ring and surrounding areas even better than the WBO world title fight that drew 18,000 fans, when Z “The Dream” Gorres dropped a somewhat controversial decision to Mexican champion Fernando “Cochulito” Montiel on Feb. 24, 2007.
Donaire himself avenged the Gorres loss with a spectacular second-round TKO on Feb. 19, 2011.