By Rey Danseco
Due to a language barrier, top Filipino boxing patron Gabriel “Bebot” Elorde Jr. unintentionally revealed the wrong name of Carlito Brosas’ foe for the vacant World Boxing Empire (WBE) Asia Pacific welterweight title on October 29 at the Mandaluyong Sports Complex in Metro Manila, Philippines.
Elorde almost fell from his chair yesterday at his St. Rita Village residence in Parañaque City when he found out that Xiaolin Xia, who was initially announced last week as “will be the first Chinese prizefighter to see action in local shores”, is the former Weightlifting World Champions and well-known Chinese Olympian from Wuhan City, China.
Xia has turned to the management of boxers and promoting in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau this year. And his fighter named Zhilin Xia is the official opponent of Brosas for the scheduled 12-round title fight being supported by Mayor Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales.
“My contact in China gave me the name Xiaolin Xia instead of Zhilin Xia as their bet for the title fight, that’s why it was first announced that way. It’s a simple miscommunication,” said Elorde. “But what’s important is we’ll have this historic fight card with Filipino against Chinese fighters and it will push through for the first time.”
The Games and Amusement Board (GAB) was also informed the corrected match-up and officially sanctioned the fight last Friday, after WBE Commissioner and Advisor Dante Almario of the Philippines gave it a nod.
The fight card dubbed “RP vs China” will be televised throughout the country by Elorde Boxing Special boxing program on a tape broadcast over IBC Channel 13 in the Philippines, in 9-10 pm time slot every Thursday.
Xia, the fighter who hails from China’s Henan town, is reported as a 25-year old, 6-foot, right handed fighter with a 75 inche wingspan. His record isn’t available at the moment, but WBE Asia Pacific Chairman-Director Zhi W. Yang assured he is not pushover.
Brosas, a native of San Juan town in Metro Manila, is a veteran of huge fights in the United States when he scored a second round knockout win in his United States debut against then undefeated American Cesar Esquivel at Emerald Queen Casino sa Tacoma City, Washington in Sept. 2001. Two months later, he lost to former IBF light welterweight king Vince Phillips at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the undercard to Kostya Tszyu’s second round knockout win against Zab Judah.
