By Ronnie Nathanielsz

We should not pity Luisito Espinosa despite all his troubles because we believe champions don't deserve pity since its rather demeaning. What they should get is our help.What all of us need to do is to help Luisito get his just due from those responsible for the heinous crime of not paying this great champion and future Hall of Famer the $150,000 purse for his WBC featherweight title defense against Carlos Rios in
Koronodal in December 1997. Eight Christmases have gone by, each one perhaps more miserable than the last and still the unscrupulous individuals who failed to honor what was in many respects a blood debt strut around without a semblance of guilt or remorse.

In this land of ours where regrettably justice is often delayed if not totally denied the less fortunate, we should mount a sustained campaign to ensure that justice is done in the case of Espinosa. We all, millions of Filipinos, thrilled at his exploits in the ring which brought a great deal of happiness into our lives. We shared in his glorious moments of triumph and while we don’t need to share in his pain, what we are duty-bound to do if we have any sense of decency and national spirit left in us, is to make damn sure that he gets paid and those guilty of this felony made to pay the price, no matter what it is.

A few days ago we received a detailed email about the latest unhappy chapter in the saga of Luisito Espinosa but felt that prudence dictated we should not publish the sordid facts and thereby inflict more pain and even embarrassment on a champion among us. But its out and while we do not wish to dwell on the details there is some redeeming aspect to this whole episode.

A former hard-hitting radio commentator who was jailed during martial rule, Pex Aves, who now lives in Los Angeles, has stayed abreast of the developments and has invited Espinosa to live in an apartment with some of the veteran Filipino fighters now training in his gym and has offered Luisito a chance to train these fighters as well as a few new recruits in his fold. Espinosa has always dreamed of putting up his own gym and training promising young fighters. While this opportunity given him by Aves may not be ideal it still is a meaningful start to a career he had longed to embark on.

As a two-division world champion and the only Filipino to win the world bantamweight title where eight others before him had failed, Espinosa must surely rank as one of the greatest Filipino champions of all-time. Beyond that he was – and still is – a soft-spoken, decent young man without a nasty streak in him at all. His fault may well be that he was too good,too caring and too loving. And  therein lies the anguish.

The bond that somehow binds fighters together in an indescribable way is evidenced by the fact that another former world champion – Morris East – who lives in Las Vegas where Espinosa is currently staying,  visits him three times a day with some food to eat and talks to him to try and get him to snap out of his present depressed state. Both fighters, incidentally, were steered to world titles by Hermie Rivera, a broadcaster with a flair for words and an incredibly keen eye for boxing talent.

Our prayer is that Espinosa gets over his defeats, nay setbacks, in and out of the ring, and since his three children we understand are already in the country he should come home. There is still a whole reservoir of affection and genuine concern for him and Filipinos know how to be grateful and to embrace a world champion who was simply, one of a kind.