By Ronnie Nathanielsz
IBF Championship Committee chairman Lindsey Tucker says he will notify minimum weight champion Florante Condes “on February 7, 2008 to do his mandatory” despite the fact that the IBF announced earlier that it had approved a title defense against No. 6 ranked Raul “Rayito” Garcia in La Paz, Mexico on February 16.
Tucker informed Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today that in the face of the conflict between the Filipino manager of Condes, Aljoe Jaro, and Dante Ortiz, an American of Puerto Rican descent over the Garcia fight, the IBF doesn’t get involved in legal issues “because we don’t know who is lying and who is not.”
Tucker told us earlier that the IBF had “a signed contract from Condes” which his Filipino co-manager Aljoe Jaro said he knew nothing about and hadn’t agreed to. Tucker said that according to Ortiz, Condes “signed the contract to fight Raul Garcia.” The IBF official stated that “if Condes didn’t sign the contract he wont be coming to Mexico.”
Tucker disclosed the IBF has “a contract on file from Dante Ortiz as the co-manager of Condes” which states that “both Ortiz and Jaro are co-managers but Ortiz has the right to makes the fights if Condes becomes rated in the top 5 of the major sanctioning bodies or becomes champion.”
Discussing the mandatory title defense, the IBF Championship Committee chairman said that at this point “ it doesn’t matter who his manager or promoter is. If there is no agreement to do the fight, the IBF will call for a Purse Bid and the winning bidder will promote the fight.”
