By Ronnie Nathanielsz (photo by philboxing.com)
THE issues involving Philippine super featherweight champion Jimrex Jaca and his manager Rex “Wakee” Salud don’t make sense and very clearly there is more to this than what we see on the surface.
But if you scratch a little below, you would find out the real reasons for this seeming mess. However, what concerns us much more is the fact that after Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao blazed a trail and opened doors for all talented Filipino fighters in the lucrative American market, incidents such as those involving Jaca and Salud will give the wrong impression to US promoters and in the end hurt all our fighters looking to fulfill their dreams in the international arena.
For whatever it is, Salud signed up Jaca for an Oct. 21 Golden Boy Promotions featherweight title fight against champion Juan Manuel Marquez for a purse of $50,000, which seems very fair since Marquez himself defended his title against Chris John of Indonesia for a mere $30,000. However, what initially caught our attention was when it was reported that Jaca would only get $40,000 of his purse with Salud giving Leonil Lazarito, who is involved in the sport in various capacities it seems, $10,000.
What for, we don’t know.
A couple of days before the fight, Salud alleged that Jaca had gone to the US embassy on more than one occasion, but for some mysterious reason, his name didn’t appear on the embassy computer for a P1 visa and when he supposedly got it a couple of days before the fight, it was too late for Jaca to make it to the pre-fight press conference and the official weigh-in. Clearly, Golden Boy Promotions, which had signed up Jaca, was embarrassed and had to scramble to salvage the main event as well as the lucrative pay-per-view market.
The fight was then, as expected, postponed for Nov. 25. That was when Salud claimed he had not been informed by Golden Boy Promotions that the fight had been postponed and so he went ahead, appealed to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and had Jaca scheduled on an eight-round, non-title fight on the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales undercard at a catchweight of 131 lb for a measly $7,500.
Salud, who was abroad and apparently left Jaca to fend for himself, revealed the Arum deal on his return and said that Jaca had stopped training when the fight with Marquez was called off and that he was in fact in Dumaguete City and weighed 138 lb and would not go ahead with the Golden Boy promoted fight.
It seems strange that a fighter, who hadn’t been training and allegedly ballooned to 138 lb could lose 7 lb and get in shape for a Nov. 18 fight and yet couldn’t get in condition for a fight one week later. However, Jaca himself when training in the gym of Golden Boy after he left for Los Angeles without informing Salud, looked good and revealed he wouldn’t have problems making the weight. Jaca, in fact, signed a three-fight deal with Golden Boy to the delight of the great Oscar de la Hoya, who revealed to us that he couldn’t understand what Salud was up to. Why Jaca and Salud’s longtime trainer Jun Bubuli left for Los Angeles without letting the manager know surely must mean something.
It’s not hard to figure out why Salud did what he did. He claims to be very close to Arum and has said he is a very fair person. Together with Michael Koncz from whose clutches celebrated trainer Freddie Roach virtually rescued flyweight contender Diosdado Gabi, Salud had assured Arum that the top Filipino fighters would be delivered to him and not to Golden Boy, including, as some people suggested, Pacquiao and former world super flyweight champion Gerry Peñalosa. De la Hoya beat them to it. He signed Pacquiao, Gabi and Peñalosa and has added Jaca, leaving Salud with a lot of explaining to do to Arum.
It is clear as daylight on a summer morning that Salud, whether he admits it or not, was aligned with Arum in an effort to embarrass and pull one over De la Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions is known for its integrity, decency and care for its fighters. Arum’s boast that after the Morales fight, Pacquiao will continue to fight under Top Rank despite his well-publicized seven-fight contract with De la Hoya provides a clue. It is best that Filipino boxing managers do not allow themselves to be used as pawns in the battle among American promoters and that when contracts are signed they are honored and that they deal with all US promoters with honesty and integrity because you cannot demand these traits from them if we ourselves don’t live up to them.
Besides, blaming the US embassy for a visa snafu is a risky business especially in the light of Golden Boy’s statement that Jaca’s visa was available as early as Oct. 11 which in fact resulted in the circulation of a story that Jaca had lost his passport or it would expire and Salud had to apply for a new one. Bottom line, as De la Hoya pointed out in a conversation with us, will Jaca be forced to throw away a title shot and exposure in the US on what was to be a pay-per-view card and a $50,000 purse for a mere pittance of $7,500 against a possible patsy in an eight-round fight that almost surely won’t even be televised? That’s a no-brainer!
