By Ronnie Nathanielsz
International Boxing Federation minimum weight champion Florante Condes laughed off the boasts of mandatory challenger Raul “Rayito” Garcia of Mexico who said he was “not afraid” of the vaunted punching power of Condes because he too had power in his fists, adding “’let’s see what blows hurt more.”
In an interview with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today after a lengthy courtesy call on Vice President Noli De Castro, Condes responded to Garcia’s comments saying “he can say what he likes but we will see each other in the ring and I will do my talking in the ring. I will do everything I need to do to bring back the title to the Philippines."
Condes who was accompanied by his aunt Loy Valencia and her husband Larry, well-known promoter Sammy Gello-ani who helped Condes during his training at the famed ala Gym and looked after him as well as helped arrange the title defense along with international matchmaker Sampson Lewkowicz, accompanied the champion in the courtesy call.
Also present was trainer Danny Bactol and this reporter along with TV crews from Viva Sports and ABS-CBN and Vice President De Castro’s Chief-of-Staff Atty. Jesse Andres who helped Condes when he was informed of his managerial and promotional problems.
Condes was visibly touched by the care and concern for his career shown by De Castro who during the conversations gave Condes a check with which to purchase all the required training equipment and other necessities which he didn’t have in the past.
Condes who after a short while began to open up and tell the Vice President about how he was allegedly exploited during his career, expressed his profound gratitude to De Castro. Condes said “I am very happy for the help of the Vice President who enabled me to buy my training gear.”
He confessed it was the first time to meet the Vice President and “that’s why I was very quiet.” The soft-spoken and shy world champion later opened up and told De Castro about what he had gone through and revealed that some months ago he “wanted to quit boxing” but added that he was “lucky because people like Gello-ani and all of you helped me return.”
