Australia’s basketball may not be as big as in the United States or in the Philippines. Cricket, Rugby, Australian Football, Horse racing  are far more popular in terms of crowd attendance. However, there’s one thing that caught the attention of coach Rajko Toroman in the Aussies – zone defense.

I remember back in 2004 Athens Olympics, Australia played against the United States in the preliminaries.  The Americans had a hard time breaking the zone of the Aussies. Though the former won in that game, it was a close match that pushed the Americans to the brink. Note that Team USA was made up of NBA stars including Tim Duncan, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. The Americans ended up third in that tournament though.

The Australia trip of the Gilas is the second of the series of international exposures as a run up to the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China beginning November 12. Scheduled to follow this tour is a series of exhibition games in Serbia, United States and possibly against the Canadian national team in April.

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Japan’s Hisanori Takahashi told local media that he wants to follow the footsteps of his former teammates Hideki Matsui and Koji Uehara who are now playing in the Major League Baseball in the United States. The 34-year old Takahashi recently filed for free agency.

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Kim Joo-sung of the Dongbu Promy became the first player in the Korean Basketball League to record 700 blocks. He had two blocks while playing against SK Knights in Seoul, South Korea.

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Malaysia’s national football team coach K. Rajagobal is optimistic about the future of the national team despite the setback against Uzbekistan in the Asian Cup. The defeat virtually knocked Malaysia out of contention but Rajagobal is confident that the Malaysians can perform better in the next two or three years.

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Venezuelan Alex Ramirez of the Yomiuri Giants and Yu Darvish of Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters were voted MVPs in their respective leagues this season in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Ramirez won his second successive plum in the Central League while Darvish had his second in htree seasons in the Pacific League.

For one, two typhoons have caught him while training in Baguio City. Team Pacquiao resorted to indoor training for a while instead of Manny running around the mountainous city. Furthermore, the in-fighting among the members of his team might have a bearing on his training camp. His conditioning coach Alex Ariza was reportedly having a physical altercation with his adviser Michael Koncz, though Pacquiao refused to comment on the incident. Besides, politicians have lured the ‘Pacman’ to join them in their ranks as election fever has started to go its full swing. And recently, while in the United States, Manny went to attend the rehearsals of his concert scheduled after his fight with Cotto.

In contrast, Miguel Cotto has been preparing this match dubbed as ‘Firepower’ with full concentration. With his former trainer and uncle Evangelista gone from the team, Cotto’s training camp has been doing fairly well without distractions.

With the fight in sight, the issue on the importance of focus might play a vital role. I just hope that Manny can withstand all the distractions surrounding his training camp and emerge victorious come November 14.

It was the first time that the elder Nonito led his ward to earn a championship. Dodong, as he is fondly called, mapped out an effective training regimen and a perfect plan for his son that led to dramatic victory over the flamboyant Armenian.

After a fallout with his son Nonito Jr., Dodong has been continuing to train boxers. In August this year, he was tapped to work together with Jun Agrabio as co-trainers for the eventual champion Marvin Sonsona. Team Sonsona must have seen something special in Nonito Sr. that’s why they included him to work for Marvin. As a result, Sonsona scored a Unanimous Decision victory over Jose Lopez  in Ontario, Canada for the WBA 115-pound title on September 4, 2009.

Instead of joining Team Sonsona in celebration, Dodong flew immediately to San Francisco to attend to Ana Julaton, a young Filipino-American who was scheduled to a title fight against a polished veteran in Kelsey Jeffries by September 12. Nonito Sr. was already training Julaton as early as July. Again, in a stunning upset, Julaton edged out Jeffries via a Majority Decision.

Nonito Sr., a high school drop out from General Santos City, had been with the Philippine Army before grabbing the opportunity to migrate in the United States in 1993. As of the moment, he is working again for Marvin Sonsona who has been training in Cebu City to prepare for his next bout. Dodong has already molded three world champions and is looking forward to add more.