By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The Philippines Z “The Dream” Gorres, the No. 1 ranked Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation super flyweight champion has been guaranteed a mandatory title shot later this year by OPBF president Frank Quill.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, Quill said newly crowned champion Masayuki Arinaga who won the title from Thailand’s champion Waenpetch Chuwatana in a controversial split decision last March 26 was scheduled to defend the title against Daisuke Maruyama on August 22 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
However, Viva Sports which plans on featuring Gorres in its top-rated weekly boxing show “Main Event” in a fight card at the Makati Coliseum in late July, together with well known boxing patron Tony Aldeguer who handles Gorres made representations with Quill to make sure Gorres who is the mandatory challenger is not bypassed. The OPBF president said he would “order an immediate mandatory defense” by the winner of the Arinaga-Maruyama title fight. He said the mandatory will have to take place between 60-90 days unless the winner suffers an injury.
At the same time Quill disclosed he would send out a ballot to OPBF member countries “to see if they feel that the winner of the fight between Gorres and whoever wins the Arinaga-Maruyama title fight should make a defense against Chuwatana.” The reason for this was that there was “a controversy over the result” when Chuwatana lost to Arinaga and even Japanese matchmaker, boxing manager and journalist Joe Koizumi said he thought the Thai champion should have won by two or three points.
Aldeguer and Viva Sports both informed the OPBF president there was “no problem” in having Gorres defend against Chuwatana if the flashy Filipino southpaw wins the title.
