By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Well known boxing promoter Sammy Gello-ani has flatly denied allegations by boxing manager Rex “Wakee” Salud that he had a hand in helping Jimrex Jaca slip out of the country for the US where he is scheduled to fight world champion Juan Manuel Marquez in a title fight on November 25.
Jaca and his trainer Jun Bubili left the country without informing Salud who had pulled Jaca out of the Marquez title fight which was postponed from its original date of October 21 when Salud claimed Jaca didn’t get his US P1 visa on time and was also overweight by four pounds a couple of days before October 21. Salud also claimed that Golden Boy Promotions hadn’t informed him about the postponement and he had pleaded with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to give Jaca a fight on the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales undercard on November 18 which Arum agreed to.
Salud also claimed that Jaca had stopped training and had ballooned to 138 pounds. But the Philippine super featherweight champion left the country last week, worked out at Oscar De La Hoya’s gym, pronounced himself in shape and signed a three-fight contract with Golden Boy leaving Salud in the lurch.
Gello-ani said he couldn’t have helped Jaca because he "didn’t hold his passport. Thats common sense. "He insisted that Jaca “obviously made the decision” to leave for the US and to honor the contract to fight Marquez for a purse of $50,000 instead of battling an unknown opponent at 131 pounds for a mere $7,500.
Gello-ani also pointed out that Jaca’s working visa was granted at the request of Golden Boy Promotions for the Marquez fight and " could not be used by Salud to send him to the US for a fight of any other promoter. ” Gello-ani said if they did that Jaca would have been stopped by US immigration authorities.
Gello-ani said Salud may have wrongly accused him of involvement because of his “association with Golden Boy.” He said he even helped the Salud group in arranging the fight against Marquez . He said Salud “should have advised Jaca to stay. They are the ones creating trouble for their own mistakes.”
