By Ronnie Nathanielsz
WORLD Boxing Council light flyweight Juanito Rubillar, who was ranked no. 1 but denied a mandatory title shot at Brian Viloria due to the astute maneuverings of Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and Viloria’s manager Gary Gittelsohn was the victim of a bum, hometown decision in an interim title fight in Bangkok Tuesday.
Arum and Gittelsohn avoided Rubillar by claiming that they didn’t know when Viloria’s hand injury, suffered during his first tittle defense against former champion Jose Antonio Aguirre would heal, forcing WBC president Jose Sulaiman to have Rubillar fight no. 2 contender Wandee Singwangcha for the interim title.
However, after the Rubillar-Wandee fight contract was signed, Arum announced that Viloria would defend his title against Mexico’s Omar Nino Romero.
Viva Sports had earlier seen footage of Viloria training at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach and training photos posted on the Manny Pacquiao Web site when Gittelsohn claimed they were uncertain as to when Viloria would be able to fight again.
A boxing writer in Thailand, who requested that his name not be publicized because he could get into trouble with Thai authorities, told Standard Today that Rubillar was the aggressor, connected with the more telling blows and should have been declared the winner against Wandee.
The writer also condemned as ridiculously lopsided the 117-111 scorecard of Australian judge Brad Vocale, who had the no. 2-ranked Wanee Singwangcha the winner, while Japanese judge Takeaki Kanaya and Korea’s Jae Bong Kim both had identical 117-113 scorecards for Wandee.
The Nation newspaper in Bangkok said it was a hard-fought victory for Wandee and that Rubillar displayed “some excellent attacking boxing and at times caught the Thai off-balanced and upped the tempo in the closing rounds.”
Rubillar himself was stunned by the unanimous decision awarded to Wandee. “I couldn’t believe they awarded the decision to the loser.”
He added that he knew his best was good enough to win.
