Chad Bennett Disputes Jaca's Allegations of Fight Fix
By Edward Chaykovsky
Chad "Hollywood" Bennett has contacted his lawyers to fight the recent allegations being made by Jimrex Jaca and his handlers, who claim the Australian boxer tried to bribe them to throw a fight on the now canceled Anthony Mundine-Shane Mosley undercard at Sydney Entertainment Centre. The fight was going to take place last week. Jaca's trainer Franklin Albia told the Sun Star newspaper that they were approached with a proposal to throw the junior welterweight fight for $3500.
"He told us 'my friend, you have to lose this fight', but we said no because we were not there to lose this fight," Albia told sunstar.com. "They threatened to pull us out from the fight and change to a different opponent if we didn't give in to their demands."
Jaca told the website his camp was offered another deal, again with the clincher being that he had to take a dive.
"We were offered to fight him on December 6 and I was going to be paid a purse of $14,000 but I had to throw the fight away," Jaca said.
Speaking to the Newcastle Herald, Bennett denied the allegations. Bennett Jaca's camp is just upset because they wanted the full purse to be paid in advance.
"I've already spoken to a legal representative," Bennett said. "There's no truth in any of this whatsoever and I'll take whatever legal means I need to take to clear my name, if that's what I need to do."
"They wanted to be paid their whole purse, the trainer and the boxer. That was according to the manager, because I never met with the trainer or the boxer. Apparently they were filthy about not getting paid. Basically I said, 'No, I'm not paying you', because they wanted to be paid for a job they never did.
"He said that's not how it worked in The Philippines, that the fighter still gets paid his purse even if the fight's cancelled. I said that's not how it works in Australia. If you don't fight, you don't get paid. That's why I offered them another fight in Newcastle. I said, 'I've got no problems paying you once the fight's over, but I'm not going to pay you your purse when there was no fight'."
