By Ronnie Nathanielsz
International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimum weight champion Florante Condes has said “no” to the plan of promoter Bobby Bostick who wants him to call off his mandatory title defense against undefeated Raul “Rayito” Garcia in La Paz , Mexico in June and instead face former champion Muhammad Rachman in a non title rematch in Manila.
Condes’ aunt, Ms. Loy Valencia said she spoke to Condes who is in the midst of training at the ALA Gym in Cebu and he told her he wants to go ahead with his title defense which is what his handlers had earlier told Bostick in a lengthy meeting the other day.
Ms. Valencia said she kept her commitment to Bostick to check with Condes and would tell him the fighter’s decision in a scheduled meeting on Tuesday.
Meantime IBF Championship Committee chairman Lindsey Tucker said he was “happy to hear that Condes will fight his mandatory.” Tucker added that he would “hate to see him lose his title” by failing to go through with the scheduled mandatory defense.
At the same time Tucker said “it’s a shame that he has not fought since winning the title last July” in Jakarta against Indonesia ’s champion Muhammad Rachman in a close and exciting bout where Tucker himself was the IBF supervisor.
Well-known promoter/manager Sammy Gello-ani who is looking after Condes in Cebu described the champion as “a very nice young man” who was training hard in preparation for his title defense.
