By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The popularity of boxing has always been known. But like any other sport public interest wanes when there is no hero to look up to or the quality of the competition leaves much to be desired or when the integrity of the sport itself is eroded.
Thanks to the exploits of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao which has stirred a renaissance in boxing and the emergence of a new breed of young, well trained and cared for fighting machines such as Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista, Z “The Dream” Gorres, AJ Banal and a host of others, boxing is back to the glory days when the late Gabriel “Flash” Elorde ruled as world junior lightweight champion for nearly seven-and-a-half years.
However, the one thing our own supervising agency the Games and Amusements Board must guard against consistently, are unscrupulous promoters, matchmakers and miscellaneous unlicensed individuals who foist mismatches on an unsuspecting public and often send ill-prepared boxers with no real talent to speak of to be slaughtered against vastly superior opponents especially in countries like Thailand.
By the same token the GAB must step in and disallow fight people like the notorious Narong from Thailand who brings in patsies and sometimes even outright fakes and passes them off as legitimate contenders or competitive fighters. It must also stop fight managers like Joe Koizumi from wrecking the career of such a promising fighter and potential world champion Randy Suico by feeding him a succession of pushovers in OPBF title fights that exposed Suico’s vulnerability when he met world class fighters such as WBC champion Juan Diaz and former IBF champion Javier Jauregui.
Beyond that of course is the kind of training Suico receives which we ourselves have witnessed and often condemned as old-school, totally lacking the creativity of modern day training which, to site the cases of Manny Pacquiao, Bautista, Gorres and even Bobby Pacquiao, have been clearly evidenced in their sterling performances against credible opponents in the US.
For Suico’s manager Joe Koizumi to surrender the OPBF junior lightweight title to make way for a Japanese, claiming Suico had a hard time making the weight was hogwash.Setting that aside just look at the latest opponent for the OPBF title, Pongpetch Chuwatana of Thailand. He has a record of 14 defeats as against only 9 wins with 7 wins by way of knockouts.
The Suico camp trumpeted the fact that Chuwatana won his last fight by a first round TKO. But look at the fighter he beat. He was someone who hadn’t won a fight in his life, losing 11 straight! To add to the farce Chuwatana came in overweight and had to shed off more than two pounds. As expected he was stopped in four rounds by an excruciatingly slow Suico whose power overwhelmed the bum from Thailand.
The GAB must also ensure that when decent fighters come over brought in by such respected boxing men as Eddy Pirih of Indonesia that they are given a fair shake. In last Saturday’s exciting card of Gabriel “Bebot” Elorde at a jam-packed Trece Martirez Gym, Indonesia’s undefeated No.1 minimum weight Sofyan Efendi was the victim of a bum decision against Steve Dimaisip.
While veteran judge Ramon Flores had Efendi the winner 78-74, Henry Verniz inexplicably saw it even at 76-76 while Ricardo Hayag who must have been watching another fight or was so mesmerized by the Viva Hot Babes who acted as round girls that he had Dimaisip the winner 78-74. It was a shame and a terribly unfair decision to a fine young Indonesian fighter handled by an even finer gentleman, Eddy Pirih.