By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Another scandal in boxing has been unearthed with Manila Standard Today discovering that Tata Polinar who was reportedly battered by Medgoen Singsurat (3K Battery) in a WBC Asian Boxing Council super flyweight title fight in Saraburi, Thailand last Fruday and knocked out in the fifth round, was not Polinar but someone else masquerading as Polinar.
Polinar’s manager Yolly Alfante was furious over the claim that Polinar was KO’d in Thailand. She told Manila Standard Today she was “shocked by the news” when she knew all along that Polinar was in Cebu training at the gym of Rex “Wakee” Salud under Juanito Ablaca and was preparing for a fight in Japan on June 5. Both Salud and Ablaca confirmed that Polinar hadn’t left the country prompting an angry Alfante to vow she would “file a case against all these people” and indicated she wouldn’t spare the Games and Amusements Board.
GAB boxing division chief Noli Flores said he would ask WBC representative and Bangkok Post columnist Edward Thangarajah to “provide photos of the fighter who claimed to be Polinar as well as details of who the Filipino matchmaker was.” Manila Standard Today contacted Thangarajah yesterday afternoon by overseas telephone and he promised to inform us who the Filipino matchmaker was and would try to secure a photo of the fighter who faked Polinar's name.
This is not the first instance where fighters and fight records have been faked by unscrupulous Filipino boxing people sometimes in connivance with their Thai counterparts. Well-known boxing manager and promoter Sammy Gello-ani recently disclosed that two Filipino boxers who fought in Thailand were not the boxers they claimed they were in stories that appeared in the media, including such widely-read boxing websites as Fight News and Box Rec. scandal in Philippine boxing.
Manila Standard learned that Edmund Velayo, the PABA No.13 who was reported to have lost a twelve round decision in a Pan Asia Boxing Association title fight against WBA No. 2 Denkaosan Kaovichit at Muangmaisombatburi Market in Bangbuathong, Thailand according to the Fight News report by Damrong Simakajornboon, was in Jakarta at the time of the fight and the boxer who actually fought Denkaosan was Nonong Devilleres.
The other fighter who was also reported to have figured in the same card and won was identified as Asian Boxing Council No. 3 flyweight Dondon Jimenea who out-pointed Noknoi Sitthiprasert in a six round non-title bout. Gello-ani revealed that it was not Jimenea who fought but actually Sherwin Manatad.
In the past both Manny Pacquiao’s business manager Rod Nazario and respected Cebu boxing patron Tony Aldeguer revealed the switching of fighters names. Nazario said he was stunned sometime last year when he saw a report that Bobby Pacquiao, the reigning Philippine super featherweight champion had lost in Thailand when the
fighter never even had a passport while Aldeguer revealed that last December Dondon Sultan was falsely reported to have fought and lost, also in Thailand.
Gello-ani said his boxer’s international record was unfairly and falsely damaged by the incident even as he disclosed that the individual responsible for the anomaly was a certain Bong Obero who had reportedly been previously banned by the GAB for various
irregular practices. The Cebu boxing manager/matchmaker told Viva Sports/Manila Standard that Jimenea had also been “banned by the GAB” because he had hepatitis “B” but was now based in Thailand and
apparently fighting there.
Aldeguer and Gello-ani called on the GAB to act “decisively to stop such “manipulation” and to make sure the Thais are “conscious about what’s going on and do something about it.” Veteran Thai boxing columnist and WBC official Edward Thangarajah had earlier reported that several fighters banned in the Philippines because of hepatitis and other diseases had been smuggled into Thailand to fight and posed a danger. The switching of fighter’s identifies is another of the ills plaguing boxing with the other being terrible mismatches which somehow continue to be sanctioned by both the GAB and Thai boxing authorities of which there are many.
