By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Filipino welterweight Mark Jason Melligen who forced fight fans to sit up and take notice after his excellent performance against highly-touted Mexican Norberto Gonzalez in Top Rank Promotions main event at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino last Sunday (Manila Time) arrives home on Saturday eager to see his bosom friend Z “The Dream” Gorres to whom he dedicated his victory.
Dennis Guillermo of examiner.com spoke to Melligen a couple of days after his impressive victory and asked him about how big an inspiration his friend Gorres was. Mark replied “He definitely played a big role in my victory. Gorres made me fight with more courage because I know he was already feeling weak when he went down in his last fight but he still got up, fought and finished and won.”
Melligen who fought Michel Rosales and lost a split decision following the Gorres victory over rugged Luis Melendez was clearly affected by what happened to Gorres and lost his focus during the fight worrying about his friend’s condition. But Melligen indicated that even after what happened to Gorres physically because of the brain surgery “he is still fighting to this day. I’m a lot more courageous now because of Gorres.”
Melligen recalled in his conversation with Guillermo that he and Gorres became good friends since they both belong to the ALA boxing gym and “we’re one family over there. Z is a really good guy and a good friend . You can ask anybody that knows him in the ALA boxing gym and they will tell you the same thing. I will never forget Gorres and he will remain an inspiration every time I fight.”
Turning to boxing itself and his career, Melligen who had previously defeated the unbeaten Raymond Gatica last February 13 said he wants to “become stronger and much more aggressive in every single round. Those things are what I plan to improve on for my next fight.”
Although he had earlier mentioned the name of Alfonso Gomez who retired former world champion Jose Luis Castillo at the end of the sixth round of their recent fight, Melligen said he really didn’t have any preference adding “I’ll fight anybody they put in front of me and I will prepare for him whoever he might be.
Melligen won the respect of Floyd Mayweather Jr, WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana and WBC/IBF champion Devon Alexander. He sparred with Maidana and Alexander as they trained for their title fights. Both fighters admitted that Melligen was a valuable help in sparring and contributed to their title victories while Mayweather also had some nice words for Melligen.
