A boxing manager has slammed a little-known boxing trainer in a Mandaluyong gym and a veteran matchmaker for their "discriminatory and uncalled for actuations and remarks" against an Iloilo boxer who recently came to their gym to ask permission to train after obtaining his professional license from the Games and Amusement Board (GAB).
Boxing manager Chad Colocado complained that when he and Iloilo boxer Remy Cuambot came to the gym of trainer Lando Espinosa and matchmaker Jimmy Narvaez last week, "they turned us away at sinabihan nila ako na matanda na raw ang boxer (Remy Cuambot) at nagsasayang lang daw ako ng pera."
Colocado said he was taken aback and did not expect to be treated shabbily "since we came in good faith and I thought they were my friends and were there to help us, not to discourage and insult us."
"Hindi raw nila matanggap si Remy dahil overage na," added Colocado, a bigtime cellular phone trader. "Nasaktan kami sa mga sinabi nila lalo na si Remy who is a former bemedalled amateur boxer."
Unfazed, Colocado reported the matter to GAB administrative officer Estella Igasan who also felt embarrassed by the incident.
Igasan, an Ilonggo like Cuambot, referred the boxer to promoter-manager Aljoe Jaro in Binangonan, Rizal.
"Aljoe Jaro welcomed us with open arms. Iba siya; may puso siya sa mga boksingerong takulad ni Remy Cuambot," said Colocado whose ward, undefeated junior featherweight contender Van Bantilan, Cuambot's former teammate in amateur boxing, will gun for WBO Asia-Pacific title on October 20 in Thailand.
Cuambot, 27, a mechanical engineering graduate, was a former national youth amateur boxing and Palarong Pambansa gold medalist. He and Sydney Olympian Danilo Lerio won a bronze medal apiece in the lightflyweight division in the 1997 LGUlympics held in Iloilo City.
"It's okay with me if they don't like me. I will try my best to prove them wrong," said the soft-spoken Cuambot whose march to the professional rank was interrupted when he and his twin brother, Ronald, pursued their college education immediately after the "retired" from amateur boxing.
Top photo: Boxer Remy Cumabot (L) and Manager Chad Colocado.
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