An age-old rivalry that made and broke a lot of careers and featured a lot of defining moments will finally be dusted when Magnolia battles San Miguel Beer in a best-of-seven finals showdown of the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner's Cup starting today at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Game 1 fires off at 7:30 p.m. with both the Hotshots and the Beermen tipped to march with fire in their eyes not only to pull off an early lead but also to gain a psychological advantage in this duel that sparked as early as 1988 when the Purefoods franchise formally acquired the Tanduay.

Bannered by young guns like Alvin Patrimonio, Jojo Lastimosa and Jerry Codiñera, Purefoods coasted all the way to the 1988 Open Conference finals only to bow to the old guard — San Miguel — in an emotional seven-game series.

Since then, their head-to-head battle was pretty much one-sided in favor of the Beermen, who beat the Purefoods franchise six times in eight encounters.

The last time they met was in the Philippine Cup finals in 2019 with San Miguel emerging victorious in a tough seven-game affair.

With that, expect tension to rise when these two proud franchises clash anew, especially after taking different, yet equally challenging, routes to the finals.

While the Beermen flirted with disaster before sweeping sister team Barangay Ginebra in their best-of-five semifinal series, the Hotshots needed four games to get rid of the gritty Phoenix Super LPG side to punch the last ticket to the championship round.

Still, the Beermen are downright scary.

In fact, they have not lost a game since changing import with Bennie Boatwright averaging 35.6 points, including a 42-percent shooting from beyond the arc, while pulling down 12 rebounds and dishing out 3.4 assists per game.

All in all, the Beermen had won eight in a row, seven of them with Boatwright at the attack zone.

"The coaches and the players, in particular Chris Ross, they helped me figure out ways on how to get me in motion, to keep me moving out on the floor. They made my job easy," said Boatwright, who is thrilled to face Magnolia import Tyler Bey.