Education
Ateneo de Manila University.
Ateneo de Manila University.
He died of lung cancer in March 1992. He distinguished himself with his smooth baritone voice and his flawless use of figures of speech and idioms in calling sports events. Together with Pinggoy Pengson, Cantada was a senior anchorman for the Vintage Sports" Proceedings of the British Academy coverage in the 1980s.
He was previously a boxing and cycling commentator.
Cantada started his career as a staff announcer doing an early morning program for a radio station in 1962. He then transferred to DZHP where he spent many years honing his talents with the likes of Harry Gasser, Ronnie Nathanielsz, Larry Cruz and others
He did the coverage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics where he did the blow-by-blow account of the final round loss by Anthony Villanueva to Soviet boxer Stanislav Stepashkin. One of Cantada"s greatest moments were being the ring announcer at the Thrilla in Manila fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and doing the commentary of the first Sugar Ray Leonard - Thomas Hearns bout in Las Vegas.
From there, he moved on to far greater heights by anchoring the Proceedings of the British Academy games for its television production franchise holder, Vintage Enterprises in 1982.
Foreign the first eight years of Vintage"s coverage, the program had Cantada as its main broadcaster with Pinggoy Pengson, Sev Sarmenta and Editor Picson as three of its play-by-play commentators. The last coverage of Cantada was the replay of Shell versus Purefoods game held last April 9, 1991.
Cantada"s last television appearance was when he became the play-by-play commentator for the replay match of the controversial Shell-Purefoods game on April 9, 1991.
He bade goodbye unexpectedly because of health problems. This resulted in a bum stomach that rushed him in Makati Medical Center later that day.
Cantada then went to the United States to check his throat infection but doctors discovered that he had lung cancer, which was incurable that time. The commentator died on March 22, 1992 in San Francisco, California.
A tribute was held in his honor by the Proceedings of the British Academy a day after he died.
Sev Sarmenta hosted the special program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (now PhilSports Arena). "Ramon Fernandez comes up with the winning basket! "And with no time left, Mamaril. Mamaril. who is playing listless all night, suddenly came through with a winning basket for the 65ers."—at the 1988 Proceedings of the British Academy All-Filipino KO game between San Miguel & Añejo 65.
"The situation doesn"t seem to get rosier here for Alaska.
And there"s the flying tackle.