By Ronnie Nathanielsz
THERE has been considerable positive response to the efforts of Games and Amusements Board Chairman Eric Buhain to intervene directly and decisively in the case of International Boxing Federation minimumweight champion Florante Condes and to some extent, in the case of Orient Pacific Boxing Federation junior flyweight champion and World Boxing Council no. 2-ranked Juanito Rubillar.
The difference that Standard Today has noticed is that Condes is a tragic victim of greed and of people, who have taken undue advantage of the simplicity and lack of knowledge of the business of boxing even in its simplest form.
Rubillar, on the other hand, appears to match his shiftiness in the ring with a rather distressing attitude outside, where he appears to drift between one manager and another and make commitments, receive money and fail to honor those commitments.
Perhaps, Standard Today should leave his rather complicated if not nasty case for some other time and pay its attention to the case of Condes which, to a large extent, mirrors the tragedy of boxing.
When his supposed manager, former boxer Aljoe Jaro, signed a co-manager’s contract with an American of Puerto Rican descent Dante Ortiz, it seemed obvious that he didn’t read the fine print in the contract he signed for which he received $10,000.
Condes’ troubles began when he returned home from Jakarta after winning the world title on July 7, 2007, beating Indonesia’s Muhammad Rachman by a unanimous 12-round decision in Jakarta.
He discovered that for winning a world title, he eventually received a paltry sum of just over $3,000 and that he did not get anything from the $10,000 that Jaro was paid when he signed up with Ortiz as co-manager.
In fact, Condes informed Chairman Buhain that from his purse, after 33 percent was deducted for the co-manager’s each of whom siphoned off 16 ½ percent, another 10 percent was deducted for the listed trainer, former junior welterweight champion Morris East, who didn’t train him even for one minute and was not in his corner when he fought in Jakarta.
Out of the balance, Condes alleged that he received a mere 50 percent or effectively some 28 percent of his purse money with Jaro deducting 50 percent for various expenses.
Fed up with his sad plight, Condes in a hand-written note in Filipino to Buhain, wrote he didn’t believe Jaro and wanted out and complained that when he asked for a copy of his contract, he was not given one.
Condes, in a text message to this writer, wrote it would have been better if he didn’t win the world title, because then at least he kept on fighting and got paid even though the amounts were small. Now, months after winning the world title, he hasn’t fought.
On Dec. 5, the uncle of Condes by marriage, Apolinar Valencia who is married to his aunt Loy, wrote to Chairman Buhain stating “we are concerned with the conflict beleaguering his career. From the small town of Romblon he came [to Manila] to make his dream a reality. He trusted people to help his career and so he went one step further by winning a world title.”
Stating that Buhain was aware of Condes’ problem, his uncle sought an audience saying “you are the only person, the right person who can make this all clear so that once and for all everything will be put in order because it is Florante’s career that is at stake.”
He reiterated what Condes told Standard Today and that is he was losing interest in pursuing his career and wanted to go back to the province and become a tricycle driver.
“Florante has placed his life, his dreams in boxing. From a simple barrio boy he is starting to make a life great not only for him but also for his family. It is sad to see him used, abused, manipulated and his rights violated. We, his family, have never meddled with his affairs in boxing, but this time, we cannot leave him alone in his crisis. Please help him.”
To be continued
