By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Mexican ring warrior Jorge “Travieso” Arce plans to relinquish the WBA Interim super flyweight title he won from Panama’s Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion in Mexico City on Monday and move up to fight as a bantamweight.

The manager of Concepcion, Optimum Sports Agency CEO Damon de Berry informed insidesports.ph, Manila Standard and Viva Sports that he got word from the Arce camp that “they will relinquish the title without defending it or fighting the regular champion  Nobuo Nashiro of Japan .

Nashiro (12-1, 7 KO’s)  barely regained the super flyweight belt with a split decision win over OPBF champion and WBA No. 3 Kohei Kono (21-4, 7 KO’s)  in what well-known Japanese Hall-of-Fame awardee Joe Koizumi said was a hard-fought twelve rounder.

In his fight against Arce, de Berry said Concepcion had Arce “very rattled in rthe third round and hurt him again in the fourth but could not capitalize.”

De Berry said the result of the fight in which Concepcion didn’t come out for the ninth round showed the work they had to do but assured Concepcion’s Filipino fans that “he will be back, better and stronger than ever.”

The likeable manager said Arce is very experienced and although he had shown signs of not being at his best in his last couple of fights, “the Arce that came out to face Rafael was as motivated and tough as we had expected.”

He said he didn’t know whether the high altitude in Mexico City played a big part in Concepcion’s loss and said Concepcion was “caught early with a couple of very good body shots and after Rafael showed he was hurt, Arce continued to target the body.”